John and Jerry walked through the halls of a large complex. They were told that their recently contained threat was showing signs of wakefulness. It wouldn’t be long before he would fully wake up, and it was their job to interrogate him.

“Brown hair and eyes, approximately five foot ten inches, ordinary bloodwork… if I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was a normal guy,” Jerry said as he read statements off of a paper. All of the tests they did on him came back completely normal, so they decided that the subject was safe enough for them to interact with directly.

“If only he was normal, that’d make my job easier,” John muttered. He’d been in a bad mood all day. No, that wasn’t true. He had been in a bad mood for five years. Ever since that day…

“No, I can’t keep thinking about it. I have to move on,” he said to himself. Jerry looked at John and then quickly looked back away. He didn’t quite know yet what had bothered John for so long—the thing he seemed to randomly think about at times—but he was sure he’d learn about it eventually. Whenever he asked anyone, they were always very hesitant to answer. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Our protagonist slowly came around in a dimly lit room. In front of him were the man that shot him and the man that stood next to him, both looking straight into his eyes. Before he could ask anything, though, the two men spoke first.

“Let’s get straight to the point. My name is Jerry, this is John. What’s your name?” Our protagonist hadn’t thought up a name yet. He had no idea what he was supposed to call himself.

However, there was a singular name that stuck out to him. He didn’t see it anywhere, he didn’t know anyone with it, and he had no idea how he came up with it. Yet, he went with it.

“My name… my name is Chippy.” John and Jerry both glanced at each other and looked back at Chippy. He had to admit that the two were quite intimidating.

“Got it. Chippy, could you tell us why you’ve come to our planet?” John’s question sounded more like a command. He looked at Chippy with tired, almost uninterested eyes. Jerry, on the other hand, seemed keen to listen to whatever Chippy had to say. They made a good duo.

“I don’t know... one minute I’m floating in space, and the next I’m on Earth. I don’t have any memories from before then.” Chippy’s explanation failed to mention the vision he had in the crater, but he still wasn’t sure whether it was a memory or not. He proceeded to lean back in his chair and relax, causing John to squint at him.

“You know, Chippy, you are an incredibly important person. More important than any of us have ever been.” Jerry put his arms on the table and leaned closer towards Chippy.

“Really? Am I a celebrity?” Chippy couldn’t see why he was so important if he had only been on Earth for such a short time.

“Not quite. You survived an impact from space with no armor, shield, or ship to protect you.” Chippy supposed what Jerry said could make him seem cool. It was quite an impressive feat.

“Chippy, we as humans don’t like things that are stronger than us. Time and time again throughout history, we have eliminated countless threats many times more powerful than us just because they exist. I assume you can see where this is going?” Chippy then realized what was going on, and he didn’t like it.

“If it were up to me, you’d already be taken out. You’re lucky that John was here.” Chippy felt even more intimidated now that he knew what danger he was in.

“Can’t you just tell everyone that I don’t want to hurt anyone? I really just started my life a little bit ago, I haven’t even thought about hurting anyone,” Chippy asked innocently. He didn’t see why he couldn’t just explain himself.

“Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way, Chippy. Well, not quite…” John took a deep breath before he continued. A grin appeared on Jerry’s face.

“You see, Chippy, I am the leader of an independent organization known as Anomalous Subject Institution, ASI for short. My family line has owned this company since 1797, and we serve a singular purpose.” John paused to take another breath, and Chippy began to listen a bit closer. 

“That purpose is to contain things that we consider threats to the human race or believe may cause public outcry if they were revealed to the general people. You, Chippy, fall right into that category,” Jerry cut in, speaking for John, who looked slightly irritated.

“However, if we can set those things free, then we try our best to do so. I don’t quite agree with it, but if it’s what we were founded on, then I’ll do it.” John cleared his throat once Jerry finished.

“You, my friend, are extraordinary, yet you look entirely normal at the same time. You survived a meteor crash, and you controlled our soldiers on a whim, but you look like any other average Joe out there. If you promised to be good, then we could let you go right here, right now.” Chippy thought that sounded pretty good. He would be able to figure out who he was and why he was here, and nobody would want to hurt him.

“That comes with a price, though. While ordinary people won’t know who you are, we currently have four governments that claim to know about you. Those governments are very likely to relentlessly hunt you down if you don’t work with us to clear your name with them.” John nodded after Jerry finished. Chippy took a moment to digest the choice.

“That’s a tough decision… could you give me a little time to think about it?” Chippy thought about all of the different outcomes that could come out of this. If he worked with ASI, it could take a long time for him to live normally and figure out who he was, but if he didn’t, he would have to constantly live in fear of the governments that wanted him dead.

“Take all the time you need.” After saying this, John got up, and Jerry followed. They left the room to give Chippy space as he continued to think over the possibilities.

“You know, John, it’s very risky to let him go, regardless of the decision he makes.” Jerry leaned against the wall right outside of the door to Chippy’s room.

“I know, I know… we were founded on the idea that if freedom can be achieved, then freedom should be achieved. I’ve kept us on pure containment for far too long. I want to go back to our roots.” John peeked into the one-sided window that allowed them to see Chippy, who was in the same position as when they left. They still had time.

“I understand, but this one seems especially dangerous. He survived falling from space, John!” Jerry argued with his superior, but John wasn’t going to hear him out. He never did.

“Jeremiah Stanton, that’s your full, legal name, correct?” Jerry hated when John called him by his full name. It made him nervous.

“My name is John Johnson, and I am the boss of ASI. You are an assistant who hopes to become the boss someday. I highly suggest that you stop trying to reverse the roles and go along with exactly what I say.” Jerry pursed his lips as John spoke, he hated these little spiels.

“It sounded like you needed a little reminder of how things work around here.” John had a love-hate relationship with Jerry. He was the best member of ASI to become the boss after him since he had no child able to inherit the company, but he always wanted to either contain or kill all subjects instead of letting them go.

“Listen, Jerry. It isn’t your fault, we’ve been on a pure containment policy for a very long time. I can’t blame you for sticking with what’s always worked, but we have to at least try.” John knew that Jerry always liked the old containment method, and that was the main reason he wasn’t sure about promoting him to boss. If he could just get away from it, he’d be the perfect candidate.

“Hey, are you guys out there? I’ve made my decision,” Chippy yelled from the other side of the door.

“Let’s get back to work.” Jerry nodded in agreement as they went through the door back to Chippy.

“Hey, so uh, it wouldn’t be too much to ask if you helped me with all that government stuff, would it?” John smiled at this. Chippy was pretty sure it was the first smile that he had seen from him.

“It wouldn’t be too much at all.” John pulled out a drawer and tookout a stack of papers thicker than Chippy’s hand and a pen that had ASI printed in a gold color on the side.

“Sign through all of these papers, then we can get to work.” John laid the papers out before Chippy. There were at least a hundred different areas to sign.

Chippy began his quest of signing his first name on all of the blank spots. He couldn’t think of a last name in the same way he thought of his first name, but the two men in front of him didn’t seem to mind.

“And… done! Can I keep the pen?” John took the papers and pen from Chippy and put them in the drawer he got them from.

“No,” he answered. John motioned for Chippy to stand up, so he did. He assumed it was almost time to leave.

“You know, it’s kinda funny that I know how to write since my life started such a short time ago. Well, now that I think about it, it’s odd that I know most of the things I know. It must be like riding a bike or some—” Chippy was cut off by a sudden flashback. This one was similar to the one he experienced before, but it was in a new setting. He wasn’t even sure it could be considered a flashback. He was placed in yet another new body.

This time, he had the body of a woman. He was riding a bike with five other people, but their faces seemed to all be obscured in one way or another. He could see that most of them had dyed their hair in various colors under their helmets. In the mix, he saw blue, green, red, blonde and white atop their heads. He could see his own hair flowing next to him, pink in color. They rode down a long road that passed through what seemed to be an endless, dry, barren area. He could faintly hear laughing from those who rode with him. Who were they?

“Chippy?” He could hear one of the people talking to him.

“What is it?” Chippy asked. He couldn’t control his own words, it was as if they were being made for him.

“Chippy!” He was shaken awake by John, who had him by the shoulders. Chippy had just been standing there with a blank expression.

“Huh? What happened?” Chippy snapped out of his illusion and looked at John in the eyes, confused.

     “You became completely unresponsive, Chippy. Did you blank out? Jerry, you’re taking notes, right?” Jerry, who had been standing behind John watching Chippy intently, pulled a notepad out of his pocket and began writing on it. 

          “I’m not sure… It’s hard to describe, it was like I was having a memory or something.” Chippy did his best to explain what just happened to him. It was almost as if he had actually been there. Although he didn’t have many, he recalled his memory from the crater, and it was similar to this one just now.

“Interesting… if you get any more of these ‘memories,’ tell me.” Chippy wondered why John would care about the memories. He thought that John only wanted to make sure that he didn’t do anything stupid.

“Okay, I will. Now, where do we start?” Chippy noticed that Jerry had a bit of a smile on his face. What was that about?

“You see, we can’t immediately head out with you having such little knowledge of the world, especially the violence that it contains. It is our job to make sure that you know how to protect yourself when someone wants to hurt you. You, in particular, need to be especially cautious, being wanted by governments and all.” Jerry motioned for Chippy to follow him out of the door. John followed closely behind Chippy, and they formed a very tight line.

“This place is really big. What’s behind all of those doors?” Chippy looked to his left and right and saw heavily guarded doors everywhere. They were made of thick steel and were airtight.

“Right now, we’re in the most dangerous part of this base. You could say it’s similar to maximum security, but in reality, it’s much, much worse.” Jerry looked at the steel doors himself and pictured the horrors they may contain. There were only a few things even Jerry didn’t know about ASI quite yet, so the things that only John knew about scared him.

After walking for about five minutes down the extensive hallway, they finally reached a door that looked different from the others. Jerry entered a passcode to open it up, revealing a very large room with bars of lights at the top. More doors were on each cardinal side of the room, and it had no decoration whatsoever. The incredibly barren room was almost frightening. The shadows in the corners looked like they could hide things that could jump out at any second.

“What are we doing here?” Chippy asked.

“We’re testing your fighting capabilities. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” John muttered something into a radio that had been on his belt and then left the room.

“This soldier will not fatally harm you in any way. Simply do your best to fend them off. Think of it as a sparring match to prepare you for the real thing.” Jerry then left the room, leaving Chippy entirely alone.

Chippy looked around the empty room but didn’t see anyone that was supposed to train him. He moved away from the door and began to wander around; it was a bit cooler than the rest of the base. There wasn’t much to describe the room with, Chippy wondered if it had even been painted.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” Chippy looked around at the few doors that the room was decorated with but got no response. He eventually made his way to the center of the room. Once he did, the door opposite of the one he came out of opened, and a singular soldier stood in the doorway.

     “So, you’re gonna teach me how to fight?” Chippy instinctively raised his fists at the soldier, but they remained silent.

“You know, I don’t have mind-reading superpowers—at least I don’t think so—so you have to tell me how to fight if we’re gonna get anything done.” Even after saying this, the soldier just looked at him with no expression or emotion whatsoever, though he wouldn’t have been able to tell due to their helmet anyway.

“John, you requested that they come into the room without any weapons, right?” Jerry looked through thick, bulletproof, one-way glass and became concerned once he saw that the soldier had a gun in a holster.

“Yeah, we should probably get that off them, just in case they use it by accident.” John raised his radio to his mouth and spoke into it.

“Please exit the room and discard your firearm. This is a nonlethal interaction.” John looked at the soldier, and they didn’t obey.

“Jerry, I need to get in there. You stay here and watch what happens.” John left his seat and briskly made his way back to the door.

“Well, I guess learning with no instruction can work, too. All right, bring it on!” Chippy slowly approached the soldier as they stood there. He was ready to duel.

Rather than coming at him, though, They drew a gun that was attached to their belt and aimed it at Chippy. Their finger went for the trigger and pulled it down.

“End the match now!” John yelled into his walkie-talkie, but it was to no avail. The soldier wasn’t listening to him, and he heard the gun go off.

“John! They just shot him!” Jerry saw Chippy recoil and fall back on the camera. Did they… kill him? John clawed at the door, but he couldn’t get it to open. The passcode on it had somehow been changed since they were last there; this had to be premeditated.

“Jerry, go find explosives! We don’t have time to crack the code!” Jerry, hearing John’s call, ran out of the viewing booth and searched for some sort of bomb or grenade.

“Dang it! They had to have gone through checks to get into the room! How’d we let them get in there?” John continued trying passcodes, but none of them were working. He’d have to wait until Jerry found a way to break the door down.

As Jerry ran to find an explosive, he wondered why John really wanted to let certain subjects go free. He honestly didn’t care whether Chippy died or not, but the alien seemed like a special case for John. No matter—he’d do whatever he needed to to make his boss happy.

The soldier looked down at Chippy, whom they had just shot. They couldn’t help but feel pity for him, but orders were orders.

“Sorry about that, but I was told to shoot as soon as I got a chance.” The soldier bent down near Chippy to look more closely at him. He looked like a normal guy. They couldn’t imagine what warranted assassination.

“Hold on…” They looked around and saw no blood near him, but they did see a hole that went through the side of his shirt. Did that mean…

“Take that!” Chippy used his leg to sweep the soldier off their feet. He grabbed the gun from them as they fell and looked at it closer. It was an interesting tool up close, but it was much more menacing as well.

The soldier’s helmet fell off as they fell, revealing long, brown hair and a young face. Chippy looked at her in shock. He didn’t know what he expected, but it didn’t look like this. The higher-pitched voice she spoke in should have told him before, but he was too focused on staying alive to connect the dots

“Woah, you’re a girl?” Chippy had only seen male soldiers while he was in his crater, so he didn’t know that there were girl ones too. He supposed it made sense, though. Why wouldn’t there be?

The soldier sprung up and kicked the gun out of Chippy’s hand, causing it to slide far away. If she couldn’t have it, then nobody could.

“I’m not gonna miss my shot again!” The soldier sent her fist hurtling at Chippy, but he managed to duck just before it hit him.

“Hah, you lied!” Chippy was too proud of his dodge to realize that that was only the first part of her attack. She sent a kick while he was vulnerable right at his stomach. Luckily, he was still able to partially block it with his hands, but it still hurt even through the block.

“Agh!” Chippy was knocked over by the power of the kick. She was strong.

The soldier glanced at the gun that was in the corner of the room, then back at Chippy. She ran for the weapon before he had a chance to get up.

“Hey!” Chippy scrambled to his feet and ran after the weapon himself.

The room seemed to go on forever in their race towards the deadly object. They glanced at each other, both with determined looks on their faces.

Just before they got to the weapon, they both dove towards it at the same time for an extra boost in speed. They were neck and neck.

“Oof!” They both recoiled in pain as they hit each other. They had been so focused on getting the gun that they hadn’t thought about the space around them, much less each other.

After just a moment’s recovery, they looked up at each other and the gun between them. They both shot their arms out at the weapon, but just before they reached it, a loud explosion occurred that blasted one of the doors into the center of the room, distracting them both.

“Stop it, both of you!” John ran through the newly exploded doorway and stepped between the two fighters, stopping them from harming each other any further. Jerry cautiously walked towards the three of them, careful to make sure no more fighting happened too close to him.

     “John? What are you doing here? It isn’t safe!” The soldier looked up at John from the ground, seemingly worried about his safety.

“What are you going on about? This is combat training, not an assassination!” John looked like he was about to scold his employee.

“What? I was told that I was supposed to end this subject’s life. Did something get mixed up?”

Both the soldier and Chippy got up from the ground and looked at each other. They were about to kill each other, all because of some misunderstanding?

“I think I may know what’s going on, John. You probably do, too,” Jerry said with a serious look on his face. John looked down and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“What’s going on?” Chippy asked. John wished he had an answer as to why this part of ASI did what it did, but he only knew what they did.

“You see, ASI has an infamous underbelly known as the Hamil faction. Even as high up as I am in ASI, I don’t know when it was created or how it functions, but the people who become part of it make it their life’s work to try and destroy every single subject that we take in, regardless of what we want to do with them,” Jerry explained Chippy, or at least he tried. So, the most secret organization in the world had an even more secret part of it? That was confusing to Chippy, but he’d go along with it. John eyed Jerry, who then realized that he was revealing confidential information to a random subject.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Forget what you heard, Chippy.” Jerry tried to go back on what he said, but it was too late. Chippy already knew about them.

        “That’s alright. He already knows now, may as well tell him the rest. For years we’ve tried to eliminate them, but they keep coming back no matter what we do. It seems that you’ve piqued their interest, Chippy,” John added on to what Jerry said, which surprised him. Why was he acting so loosely around Chippy?

“Why do they want to destroy everything? Doesn’t that seem violent?” Chippy was still innocent in this world. He couldn’t see why people would want to harm things that have done no wrong.

“They see you as dangerous, no matter what. If you are important enough to come under our containment, then you are important enough for them to want you dead. They must have intercepted the radio request for a soldier and hijacked the screening process. On that note, we’ll start an investigation into anyone involved in this incident.” As Jerry continued to explain the Hamil Faction, Chippy wished he could understand the logic of why he was so special to everyone. He supposed that he might begin to get it later on.

“I’m really sorry about that. No hard feelings?” The soldier looked apologetically at Chippy, giving him a chance to really see what she looked like.

She looked pretty…

Long, brunette hair with hazel eyes. About five foot eight, at least from estimate. She had a slim build, perfect for her quick-moving job. She was beautiful.

“Chippy?” Jerry snapped Chippy out of his trance. Embarrassed, he quickly gave a thumbs up to the soldier as he seemed to be at a loss for words.

“What a strange soul…” Jerry muttered to himself. John then cleared his throat and said, “Anyway, there was supposed to be a second part to this test, but you seem to be shaken. Perhaps we should just skip—”

“No, no, I can do it, John. I’m alive, so I can keep going.” Chippy grinned and threw a few fake punches as he spoke. He glanced at the soldier to make sure she was watching.

“Well, if you insist.” John spoke into his radio and requested that something be brought into the room. Chippy couldn’t quite hear him, but he was too focused on not trying to do anything stupid-looking.

“So, this Hamil faction… why is it called that?” Chippy couldn’t think of a reason why ASI would give them a special name, especially if they wanted to get rid of them.

“All we know is that it has existed with that name since ASI began. The rest is lost to history.” John turned around as people walked through the now-open doorway, carrying a heavy-looking vest. Chippy wished that Jerry had a better answer for him, but he supposed that if even John didn’t know much about the Hamil Faction, nobody else would, either.

“I’m going to say that you completed the first trial, considering that you were able to quite literally dodge a bullet, but how will you fare when you have an even greater disadvantage?” John looked over the vest to make sure it was safe, then allowed the soldiers to fit it onto Chippy.

Chippy struggled to stand after he put on the vest. It was incredibly heavy. It felt as if he was carrying another person’s weight. This would definitely make things more difficult.

“You’ll be fighting against Niko again, albeit this time without a lethal weapon.” John looked over to Niko, who in turn looked down embarrassed. In her three years of working at ASI, she had never messed up this bad.

So, Niko was her name… Chippy thought that sounded like a cute name, perfect for…

“Stay focused, Chippy. You want to live a normal life. You can focus on women after you’re done!” Chippy muttered to himself under his breath. After this, however, he began to find it hard to speak due to the weight of the vest.

“I don’t think I can… fight with this thing on…” Chippy had to find time to speak through his panting. The weight of the vest was crushing. Just how heavy was this thing?

“John and I will leave. We have important matters to discuss, mostly you. Do your best in this trial. It’ll train you to fight with wit instead of just brute strength. Remember, anything is fair game.” Jerry and John left, returning to their observation room.

Chippy was left alone with Niko once again. The gun had been removed from the room, and she was given a new helmet as the old one fell and cracked during their last fight. Some soldiers had been able to snap the door back into place so that their fight wouldn’t accidentally leave the room, but it wasn’t functional anymore, so they’d have to at least try to be careful around it until it could be fully fixed.

“Are you ready, Chippy?” Niko got into the fighting stance that she had been trained to use for years.

“Ready as… I’ll ever be.” Chippy continued to pant under the weight of the vest. This was Chippy’s final trial before he could start working towards a normal life, one where secret organizations didn’t care about him.

Niko ran towards Chippy, ready to brawl once more. She wasn’t going to hold back, so neither was he… Well, that’s what he wanted to do. It was difficult for him to stand in this thing, much less make quick fighting movements against a trained professional.

“C’mon, think of something!” Chippy said in a frustrated tone. His brain came up with nearly every way he could defend himself, and in every scene, he saw himself going down because of this stupid, heavy vest.

In the end, Chippy decided to wait and see if there would be a more advantageous time for him to act, as he couldn’t do anything now, anyway.

Niko kicked at Chippy’s chest, causing him to lose his balance and fall over. Soon, she stood over him. He had already lost. There was no way that he was getting out of this. Well, at least that’s what his conscious mind believed. His subconscious had different plans.

A blast of energy emerged from Chippy’s body, sending Niko tumbling away towards the wall in shock and awe. What had caused the explosion? Did he do it?

Chippy peeked out of the fetal position that he had gotten himself into and noticed that Niko was holding her head on the other side of the room. What was she doing over there?

* * *

John and Jerry watched the fight through the glass and on the cameras. Well, it was less of a fight and more total domination from Niko. Chippy had no means of fighting back with the vest on, and she had already knocked him over. In a real battle, he would likely be dead by now.

“Don’t you think that the vest trial is a little unnecessary? He’ll never fight with extra weight on his back.” Jerry looked through the cameras and almost felt bad for Chippy. Almost.

“No, it’s supposed to simulate fighting with some form of a handicap. If governments want him dead, then they’ll do anything in their power to do so. That includes possibly incapacitating one of us, meaning Chippy would have to carry extra weight.” John paused to think of more examples to use.

“This applies to other situations as well, you know. Broken bones, dangerous environments, enemies that have the upper hand, the list goes on.” Jerry tried to listen to John drone on about how his trial was needed, but he naturally began to tune him out.

“Hey, is that camera broken?” Jerry broke John’s continuous talking and pointed at a thermal camera. Where Chippy’s red and yellow outline should have been, the camera rapidly switched between dark blue and white.

“That’s odd, I’ve never had a problem with that camera before.” John tapped on the monitor, but nothing changed. He looked out the window and saw that Niko stood over Chippy, who was on the ground. However, an explosion came from Chippy’s body and blasted Niko away and into the wall on the other side of the room; it also destroyed the vest that contained Chippy as well.

“What the—? What’s going on now?” John ran out of the room once more, and Jerry followed behind. It seemed Chippy might’ve been more dangerous than they previously thought.

          “Chippy, what did you do?!” John yelled out to Chippy, who just now was starting to get off the floor. A black explosion ring surrounded where he had been laying. He had to have caused it somehow.

         “Judging by the scene, I think I caused some kind of explosion.” Chippy stated the obvious while he looked down at both the ring and Niko, who was slowly getting up on the other side of the room.

John’s job suddenly became much more complicated. Not only did Chippy just enter Earth from the atmosphere, he also now had a confirmed anomalous ability. He may have to be kept under containment now.

This, however, made John think back to the first subject he had tried to let out of containment. He had been very similar to Chippy, but his case had been slightly different. John wondered if he had kept him contained…

It all could have been avoided…

John snapped out of his flashback. He couldn’t let his mind wander again, he’d get nothing done. He wouldn’t let himself get hung up on it again, he had something else he needed to focus on.

“Chippy, that was… something, alright. I have a feeling you can definitely defend yourself from threats now.” John wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to Chippy’s newfound power, so he tried to make it sound like a compliment. Chippy didn’t know what he did, but at least it was impressive.

“Yep, I thought it would be pretty cool.” Chippy played it off as if he knew what he had done, thinking it would make him look even cooler. Suddenly, John’s tone changed to a much more serious one.

“Now, you must promise me to use this power, whatever it may be, under one circumstance only. That circumstance would be if your life is threatened and only using it can save you. If you use it outside of that, you’ll end up in one of our cells.” Chippy understood that if wanted to live normally, He couldn’t be making explosions and working at an office job at the same time, or else ASI would come rushing back to him. He did think it was a bit unfair that he had to hide it, but he’d be fine without using it.

Although he was okay with not using them, he didn’t even know how he did it. If he only could do it in self-defense, it would be fine. At least he hoped.

“Understood, self-defense only.” John smiled at Chippy’s response. It seemed he chose the correct answer.

“Ow… don’t tell me that I have to fight him again…” Niko finally made her way over to the rest of the group, still holding her head. Chippy hoped he hadn’t caused any serious damage.

“His trials are over. Go to the infirmary and make sure nothing’s broken. I wouldn’t want one of my best pilots out of commission,” Niko slowly paced towards the door of the room so she could receive treatment. She was lucky that she didn’t break her neck on impact. She had her armor to thank for that.

“She’s a pilot?” Chippy had thought she was just a soldier. Could they have two different jobs?

“All of our pilots have to go through basic combat training in case they find themselves in danger. All of our soldiers were busy at the moment, so she came in to fight you instead—likely for the bonus she’ll get for directly helping a subject,” Jerry explained as he looked at data on some form of device. So she was a pilot with combat capability… so cool…

“Oh, no hard feelings, right?” Chippy called out to Niko, who had nearly left the room. She turned around and gave a half-smile.

“Nope, just don’t explode me again.” She then left the room, off to get her injuries treated.

“It seems that our Chippy here caused a thermal explosion—at least that’s what the sensors in this room are saying—so he must have some way of controlling his body temperature. Very interesting…” Jerry continued tapping away on his device.John looked back at Chippy.

“He loves his data, that’s for sure. His observance is one of the main reasons that he’ll take my position.” John cleared his throat and continued.

“Though I’m sure that’s not what you care about. What you want is to get out of here as soon as possible, correct?” Chippy nodded. John snorted and grinned. He could tell that his boring business didn’t interest Chippy; this made him a little more comfortable sharing information with him.

“Here’s the deal: we’ve gathered the information that a total of four countries have intel on you, whether that be video footage or eyewitness accounts from spies. What we have to do is go to each individual country leader and convince them that either their information is wrong or you aren’t dangerous—or simply have them trust that you don’t want to hurt anyone. I would just organize a big meeting with them all…” John snorted before he continued on.

“…but they’re all too scared of you to come to a big gathering. I’d much rather lock you up for a while and bring a doppelgänger with me instead, but we don’t have anyone that quite matches your appearance enough to fit the bill, especially since those countries have footage of you.” Chippy wondered how so many countries gathered information just in the short time he was in the crater. Were there really spies everywhere?

“Now, to give you a little bit of freedom, I’ll allow you to choose which country we go to first. You have Mexico, Russia, the US, and Canada to choose from.” Chippy didn’t know the difference between the countries, so he based his decision on how the names sounded. He thought Russia sounded the coolest, so that’s what he went with.

“Russia, I guess.” John nodded his head.

“Good choice.”

The trio went outside, and it turned out that they were on a tropical island. Chippy hadn’t thought about it, but he supposed that they could have brought him somewhere else while he was asleep. He could hear the ocean’s tide going in and out, and there were palm trees to give them shade from the harsh sun. Chippy had to squint a little after being inside that base for so long.

“Yeesh, I could happily just live here. Where exactly are we?”

“Well, we aren’t close to anywhere in particular. If I had to say, we’re slightly off the coast of Chile. This base was built due to a concentration of waste in the sea near here that had been building up with no identifiable cause. We haven’t figured out what causes it yet, but we keep pumping the stuff out of the ocean regardless.” Jerry explained the purpose and location of the base as they walked down what looked to be a long road. Chippy didn’t know where Chile was, but he guessed that no other explanation could do much better. He’d have to get geographic knowledge of the world once he was done clearing his name.

“Jerry, there’s something I want to talk to you about before we get too far from the base.” Jerry stopped looking down at his device and looked up at John. Whenever John said something like that, it usually wasn’t good. All three of them stopped walking to hear what he had to say.

“What is it?” Jerry asked. John closed his eyes and breathed deeply. What he was about to say was something he had been preparing for a long time, and Chippy was his final push.

“Jerry, this is your final test before you become the boss of ASI. If both of us are gone, neither of us can monitor normal matters. I’m going to go with Chippy, and I’m giving the full responsibility of ASI over to you. If the company isn’t burnt to the ground by the time I get back, it’s yours.” Jerry looked at John in shock. He had only been trained for two years now. ASI seemed like a business that needed much more training than that.

“J- John, I…” Jerry stuttered. Was he ready for this responsibility?

“I wholeheartedly believe that you are prepared to run this company. It’s up to you what you do first, Jerry.” Jerry nodded with a serious look on his face.

“I’m, uh, not entirely sure what the responsibilities of being the boss of ASI are, but I’m sure you can do it, Jerry!” Chippy encouraged Jerry, bringing a smile to his face.

“Thanks, Chippy.” Jerry took a deep breath and looked back towards one of the thousands of bases now under his control. He disapproved of Chippy going free, but maybe he wasn’t as bad as Jerry thought. Chippy was okay in his book.

“I won’t let you down, John.” Jerry walked away from John and Chippy, back towards the base. He had a lot of work to do.

“I have no doubt in my mind.” John smiled as he watched his apprentice walk away. He knew that after a busy life of constantly owning ASI, retirement was near. He always wondered what he might do after he retired. Perhaps he’d use some of ASI’s funds to buy a private island for him to relax on until he bit the dust.

“I guess it’s just you and me now, John. Are we good to go?” Chippy snapped John out of his dreams of retirement and brought him back to the real world, the world where he still had one mission left before he could take it easy.

“Oh? Yes, let’s get going.” John led Chippy the rest of the way down the long road, and it turned out to be a highway strip. A series of jets were being worked on by mechanics and pilots alike, and there seemed to be at least four ready to go right then and there.

“Woah, this is awesome! You must be super rich to have all of this stuff,” Chippy blurted out as he walked. He didn’t think about how it might sound rude, but he was too amazed by the staggering amount of aircrafts in the area.

“The governments from around the world give some money to ASI every year to keep us up and running, so you could say that we are fairly wealthy.” John opened up the door to a seemingly random jet and went inside of it. Chippy decided that he should probably follow.

“Welcome to ASI transportation, Chippy. The pilot in the front is already filled in on your situation, and he’ll be bringing us to Russia. Just sit back and relax. There’s no need to worry about anything while you’re in here. I’ll be in the back, responding to emails. If you need me, you know where I am. The flight should only take a few hours, so try not to do anything stupid.” John then left through a door that separated the back of the jet from the middle, leaving Chippy alone in the main passenger area of the jet. It was more like a plane with all of the available seating, but Chippy didn’t know enough about them to tell them apart.

“I guess I’ve got some time to kill. What to do…” Chippy plopped himself down into a chair as he felt the jet take off. He looked out a window and watched as the aircraft began to roll. Once it got up in the air, the island in the distance became smaller and smaller. It was odd—he couldn’t see the base at all in the thick of the jungle-esque area—it was completely hidden away from the world, just the way ASI wanted it.

“It’s been a long day. I should just take it easy.” Chippy closed his eyes and gave himself time to relax. Secret organizations, angry governments, unexplained flashbacks—it was a lot to take in.

Eventually, Chippy dozed off as he rode on the jet. All of the stress in his life went away for a moment as he enjoyed slumber once more. Well, he thought he would sleep peacefully. Instead, he was having a dream. A realistic one at that.

His vision was blurry once more, as if his mind couldn’t fully determine what everything looked like, but he seemed to be in a different jet. This one was smaller and moved faster than the one provided by ASI. The same people that had appeared in his visions before were in front of him, but the one with red hair was missing.

After a few seconds, though, Chippy realized that he wasn’t missing; he was inhabiting his body. This was the third body that Chippy had been in in these memories. Why was this happening? Chippy then looked out the window of the jet and could see a city in shambles. A skyscraper collapsed onto several other buildings as a huge black mass knocked it over. It just looked to be a gas of sorts, but how could gas knock a building over?

Chippy once again didn’t have control over his body, or whoever’s body he was in now. He automatically got up and walked to the door of the jet with the rest of the people waiting behind him. He took a deep breath, and…

“Wuh!” Chippy returned to his body once more as the jet that he was in shook. It soon returned to its smooth flight once more, and he settled back down once he realized everything was okay.

“Why does that keep happening to me?” Chippy sat back in his chair and thought about the dream. It had the same people he had seen before, yet he had no idea who they were.

“I’ll have to tell John about it once we get to Russia.” Chippy wanted to tell him right then—he did say to get him if anything came up—but he wasn’t quite sure if it was important enough to bother him now. Plus, he was probably still working on emails.

Chippy’s mind began to wander. He thought about the various things that had been eating away at him once more. The Hamil faction especially bothered him. If John was so smart and powerful, then just how strong were the people that even he couldn’t tackle?

“It’s all so much to think about… I need to take my mind off of it.” Chippy thought about the explosion that he seemed to have caused back at the island base. He wondered if he could replicate it to a lesser scale.

“John told me not to, but if nobody knows, it can’t be bad, right?” Chippy then stood up and took a few deep breaths, trying to replicate what he felt during the fight.

After a few attempts at trying to cause a small explosion, he discovered that it was useless. The reason he was able to do that in the fight was some kind of natural instinct, an act out of fear. Now, he was just a normal guy again.

“That’s really frustrating…” Chippy sat back down, now upset about not being able to perform his little stunt again. If only he could feel that strong emotion.

“Wait a second…” Chippy felt a small tingle in his hands, as if something was wrong with them. Was this what he thought it was?

“I think that frustration may have paid off!” Chippy looked down at his hands in excitement. He couldn’t see anything different, but he could certainly feel it.

“Let’s see, what could I do with this…” Chippy touched the metal of the jet to see what would happen, but alas, nothing occurred.

“Huh, maybe nothing’s happening after all…” Chippy rubbed his hands together and continued to experiment. He could have sworn they got warmer, but that was probably just from friction. After this, though, something very, very bad happened. 

With a loud boom, the engine of the jet exploded; the vehicle then began to rapidly descend towards the ocean below, Chippy began to feel lighter due to how fast they were going down. From the back of the aircraft, John burst through the door and frantically looked around. The lights flickered as the jet began to lose the rest of its power.

“Chippy, I don’t know what happened, but we have to jump out of this thing! There’s no way the pilot can recover it now. Run to the front!” John pointed toward a door on the opposite end of the jet, and followed closely behind Chippy.

As they burst through the door, they saw the pilot jump out of the jet with a parachute attached to his back. They looked toward the wall and saw a rack with one last parachute on it. Had there only been two?

“What?! These planes are supposed to have plenty of parachutes! When we get back, I’m firing whoever prepared this flight!” John looked at the open door and saw that the sea was quickly approaching. If he didn’t do something now, both of them would die.

Looking at the last parachute, John quickly grabbed it and fit it onto Chippy. John had lived his life, and Chippy hadn’t gotten to live his own. If he could go out a hero, he’d be fine with his death.

“John, we can think of something! You’re my only friend, I can’t watch you die!” John adjusted the final strap on Chippy’s parachute and quickly showed him how to use it.

“I’d rather an old man die than a young one. Now go!” John pushed Chippy out of the jet, and he fell towards the water. As he fell, he watched as the jet went down in what seemed to take hours but in reality was just a few seconds. Chippy pulled his string and almost seemed to stop midair.

“He’ll find a way out,” Chippy told himself. His encouraging words didn’t seem to work, though. The jet crashed into the water and separated into different pieces on contact, especially around the side where the destroyed engine had been.

“He’ll make it.” Chippy watched as the various pieces of wreckage started to be consumed by the salty water of the sea, sinking down into the abyss below. There was no sign of John. No matter where Chippy looked, he couldn’t find him anywhere.

    “John!” Chippy yelled out for only the sea to hear him. He had gained a total of one friend during his time on Earth in John, and it was Chippy’s fault that he died.

“Why’d I try it? He told me not to, so why did I?” Chippy screamed to himself in anger. Tears began to roll down his cheeks as the realization sunk in that he was now entirely alone and nobody could help him.

“W—wait…” Chippy wiped his eyes and saw what could only be considered a miracle. Climbing onto one of the larger sheets of metal was a hand—a hand that could be easily identified with the ring on its ring finger.

“John!” Chippy tried to swim through the air with his parachute to get to John. He looked pretty beat up, but he had lived. 

John coughed a few times and waved towards Chippy. He quite obviously needed help, but Chippy didn’t know what to do. That metal wouldn’t float on the surface for very long, and once it went down, John would go with it. He probably couldn’t swim, either. It looked as if his other arm had gone limp.

“Don’t worry, John! I’ll figure something out!” Chippy frantically looked around him and saw a tropical island in the distance. If he could get John to that island, then just maybe… 

“He could survive! I could survive! We could both survive together!” Chippy had John and an island—now he just needed a way to bring the two together; that was the hard part.

“Come on, Chippy, think of something!” As Chippy strained his brain to try and think of anything he could do, he was sent into another flashback, or memory, or vision, whatever these things were.

Chippy was now falling through the air. He didn’t have a parachute like he did in real life, and the ground was approaching quickly. His mouth was sealed shut. All he could do was see and think. Immediately what came to mind was to check his hair color, but it was flowing above him, and he couldn’t move his arms to bring it down.

Without meaning to, he put his hand in front of him, and a stop sign flew up towards him. He put the sign under his feet, and the speed of his fall rapidly decreased; it was as if he was surfing in the air with it. The memory seemed to be a direct continuation of the last one he had. The giant black mass that he had seen before was closer, and he was heading directly towards it. What could it be?

Chippy snapped back to reality and saw the water start to flood the piece of metal that John was standing on. The memory he had was like a fever dream. Why would a stop sign allow him to fly?

“Whatever, it had to mean something!” Chippy forcefully shot his arm out in front of him, hoping that something, anything would happen.

The metal slab stopped sinking.

Chippy was astounded by this. He didn’t know what he was doing, but whatever it was, he hoped he could keep it up. He started to get a headache again. Keeping this thing afloat, however he did it, was putting a large burden on him. It was as if he was constantly lifting heavy weights with his brain.

John had stopped coughing and looked up towards Chippy. Some kind of force seemed to be moving his platform towards where Chippy was slowly drifting down. It was going against the waves, and it had completely stopped sinking. Something was wrong—something unnatural was happening.

“Don’t tell me… does he have another ability?” John looked up towards Chippy, who had his arm sticking out towards the metal. All signs seemed to point to him being the cause of this.

Chippy slowly fell down onto the same platform as John, and keeping it afloat seemed to become a little easier as he touched it. His parachute fell down behind him, so he took off the pack that it was attached to; it was of no use to him anymore.

“John, are you—” Chippy’s headache suddenly got worse once he spoke, and the metal platform faltered a little. It was clear doing anything to break his focus was a bad idea.

“Woah there, be careful. I don’t know how you’re holding this thing, but it looks like it’s very difficult. Don’t speak unless you have to.” John then pointed to the island that Chippy had seen in the distance.

“Can you move this thing around? If we can get to that island, you’ll be able to release it.” John looked down at his leg, and he could definitely feel something inside of it. If he tried to move his arm, all it did was hurt, so he assumed it was broken.

“I… I think so…” Chippy focused all of his attention on moving the platform they were standing on. All of the other parts of the jet had sunk below the water and were no longer visible. If Chippy didn’t keep this up, they would have to swim to the island, and he doubted that John could swim very well right now. The metal made a shift toward the island, like a machine on a conveyor belt. It had a sudden start, but afterwards, it was smooth sailing… quite literally.

John sat down and tried to soothe his hurt arm and leg, careful to avoid some shards of glass that made their way onto the platform, but anything he tried to do made them hurt worse; he’d have to wait until he got to the island to treat himself.

“Don’t think of this as an excuse to start using your powers, Chippy. This falls into the ‘only use them to save your life’ category.” John reassured Chippy that his powers still weren’t okay to use outside of emergencies, but he was too focused on his current task to listen very carefully.

“But… I am grateful that you helped me. Thank you, Chippy. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” Chippy heard this and smiled. Even though John was strict, he was still kind. After floating for a little while, Chippy began to get the hang of keeping the metal in the air, even if it did make his head hurt. He was able to focus on other things instead of exclusively keeping it afloat.

“By the way, what did you mean when you said you were sorry?” John asked. Chippy swallowed hard. He didn’t want to let John know what he had done, but he had to now; lying would make him look even worse. Making sure to keep the metal floating, Chippy began his drawn out apology.

“John, I tried to replicate that explosion thing that I did back at the base. I wanted to see if I could do it on a minor scale, but after I did it, the engine blew up. I don’t know how, but I must have caused this crash…” Chippy put his head down in shame. He had one command, and he didn’t follow it.

John looked at him with an expressionless face. He didn’t look sad, not happy, not even disappointed. He seemed to have no emotion whatsoever.

“It wasn’t you.” John stood back up and looked back towards the crash, assessing what could have happened.

“What do you mean? It had to be me. There was no way that jet would have crashed if I hadn’t done whatever I did.” Chippy tried to look away from his destination to see John, but it caused the metal to shake around again, so he looked back towards the island.

“First off, you weren’t close to the engine, and that looked to be where the accident started. Secondly, that jet is heavily armored everywhere and uses a small amount of chizon technology, the same thing in my suit, to make sure anomalous abilities don’t affect it. Even if you used this new power you just found, it wouldn’t be able to harm the engine. I’ll have footage of the jet being worked on before to see if anyone tampered with it. I believe that Hamil Faction may have struck again.” John seemed confident in his deduction that Chippy didn’t do it, but Chippy was still unsure of himself. If he had the power to cause explosions and lift things without touching them, then who knew what else he could do?

“Let’s just focus on the present for now. The island’s getting pretty close. We need to start planning on what to do once we get there.”

“Yeah, I guess so…”

Chippy’s headache had begun to worsen. It was lucky that they managed to get to the island when they did, or else he might have dropped them into the water.

“Geez, that was tough…” Chippy panted as he finally dropped the metal onto the sandy beach and felt a wave of relief. The strain that keeping it lifted put on him was finally subdued. He then sat down and looked out to the ocean.

“I need to treat my injuries before they cause permanent damage. I’ll go out into the jungle, get some things to help me, and maybe search for some food while I’m there. My communication equipment was destroyed in the crash, so who knows how long we’ll be here.” Chippy watched John as he ventured deeper into the island. There seemed to be an inner jungle part that housed materials they could use to survive for however long they had to.

“What if you get hurt? You aren’t in the best shape to go searching for things.” Chippy was worried about John’s well-being. John shrugged, then immediately recoiled in pain remembering that his left arm was broken.

“I’ve been through worse than this and haven’t died yet. Plus, I’d be able to treat myself faster if I go by myself. You don’t know what you’re looking for. Try and do something productive while I’m gone. I don’t want any more of our time wasted.” John disappeared into the jungle, and Chippy was left alone once more. His mind coursed with the information that had been fed to him in the past couple…wait, how many days had it been? Only two or three? It seemed like many more than that. However, he tried to focus on what John had told him just now.

“Do something productive… surely I can figure something out.” And so, Chippy began his quest to do something that John would appreciate.

“We’ll definitely need a shelter. I bet I could make one of those.” Chippy went into the jungle himself. They would need a shelter to protect themselves from the sun, and it would make them feel more safe while they slept.

Now… what did people make shelters out of? Chippy looked around and noticed several trees in the area. It seemed the outer layer of the jungle was made up more of shorter palm trees with large leaves, while the inner layer consisted of more oak-like varieties. The leaves looked like they could be used for something. Chippy grabbed onto one of the trees and did his best to climb it. Most of the trees were fairly vertical, so it was a challenge, but he persisted.

“Almost there, and…” Chippy extended his arm as far as he could to the highest part of the tree, and after a few attempts, managed to latch onto a leaf. He used the leaf as a pull-up bar and climbed on top of it. It bent down, so in fear of the small appendage breaking, he moved to the thick middle portion.

Once Chippy reached the top, he took a small break and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He reached out to various leaves that were attached to each of the branches and plucked them off one by one. He wasn’t quite sure what exactly he was going to use them for yet, but he knew that they could be used for something. After he plucked about thirty leaves, Chippy then carefully made his way down the tree, making sure to hug it tightly so he wouldn’t fall. If he fell, nobody would be around to help him, and it would all be over.

“That was nerve-wracking. Good thing I don’t have a fear of heights.” Chippy plopped himself back down onto the ground. The soft, sturdy ground. Maybe heights weren’t this favorite thing after all. Chippy checked around the greenery of the thick jungle to see the other plants it had to offer. It was amazing that all this could grow on just one island. He wondered how big it really was.

“I can’t build this entire thing out of leaves. I need something more sturdy…” Chippy then took notice of the tree he had just climbed. It was so obvious! How did he not think of it before? People made houses out of trees all the time. He wasn’t entirely sure how he knew that people built houses out of trees, but it fit with what he knew so far. His knowledge was incredibly sporadic. He could tell you what houses were made out of, but not what his last name was. He wondered why he was like this.

“One problem at a time, Chippy. One problem at a time.” Chippy walked out of the jungle and placed his leaves under a heavy rock so they wouldn’t blow away. He knew that he wasn’t strong enough to uproot a tree; he doubted many people were. Instead, he had an idea. He returned to the beach from the jungle and eyed the scrap metal that he was able to float here on. He thought he might be able to cut the tree down using it. Chippy had seen the sharp edges of the metal as he used it to float across the ocean, and he assumed it was sharp enough to pierce the wood of the tree. He wondered just how many times this slab of metal would save him.

Chippy tried to lift the metal up with his raw strength alone, but he was too weak. There was no way that he could pick this thing up, even if he had five other people helping him.

“Well, I’m sure that this couldn’t hurt…” Chippy looked around him to make sure nobody was watching, and then held his hand out towards the metal again. It lifted upwards once more under his command, This was starting to get easier. Chippy slowly walked backwards towards the jungle once more. The metal moved at the same pace as him on its way to knock down one of the thousands of trees inhabiting the island.

“Now, let’s test my theory.” Chippy pressed the metal onto the hard bark of the tree and began moving it back and forth like a saw. Slowly but surely, he managed to dig into the tree. He eventually sawed all the way through it, knocking it down entirely. Ifhe did this just a few more times, he could make the best shack the world had ever seen. 

Chippy spent the next thirty minutes or so chopping down trees to use for his shelter. Sure, he probably could have made something out of just sticks and such, but he wanted to impress John. Once he had cut down the rest of his trees, it was time to move on to phase two of his plan.

“Eight should probably be enough. I’ll just take them back with me and—ow!” Chippy tried to lift all of the trees up at once, sending a sharp pain throughout his head. The floating metal dropped and the trees didn’t budge at all.

“Ugh, I guess I have limits, huh?” Chippy put his hand on his head as he tried to lift up a singular tree, causing the pain to return.

“No! Agh!” Chippy fell to his knees as he put pressure on his head with both hands. He did his best to subdue the pain, which lingered for a minute or two.

Unable to commentate due to his own pain, Chippy assumed that if he went over such a limit, he’d have to rest for a while before he used his powers again. Chippy got up off the ground and looked at the eight cut down trees. If he couldn’t make them float anymore, then how was he supposed to get them to the beach?

“There’s got to be some way I can get these things where I want…” Chippy analyzed the logs and then noticed something about their shape. Wouldn’t they move more easily if they were cylindrical? He guessed it wouldn’t hurt to try. Chippy planted his feet in the ground behind one of the logs. Only two were facing the direction of the beach, so he’d work with them for now. He shoved with all of his might and the tree moved just a little. If he could just keep going…

“Hah, here we go!” The tree began to roll much more easily once Chippy got it going. The leaves at the top broke off as it rolled, but Chippy most likely wasn’t going to use those anyway. Once Chippy got the tree where he wanted, he stopped pushing it. it kept going, though. It rolled down the beach and towards the ocean where Chippy could never use it.

“Hey, wait up!” Chippy ran after the tree as it continued to pick up speed. If he didn’t stop it, then he would lose the whole thing. At this rate, he wasn’t going to be able to catch it. The tree was now just a few feet away from the water. Chippy only had one choice left, and he sure hoped it wouldn’t hurt. Just before the tree rolled into the water, Chippy was able to focus on it and stop it from moving. Surprisingly, his head didn’t hurt when he did this. He assumed that the cooldown for going over his limit was less than he originally thought.

“Phew, that was a close one…” Chippy carefully took the tree away from what would have been its watery grave and set it on the beach perpendicular to the water so it wouldn’t roll.

“Alright, now that I know what I’m doing, this should go much faster.” Chippy proceeded to build up the rest of his shelter, and he managed to do it quicker than he anticipated. He had used his sawing technique with his metal on the wood he already had so he could use the logs in a more conservative fashion. This way, he wouldn’t have to go back and cut down more. He also made sure to only lift one thing at a time, even if it was a pain. He didn’t know exactly how much weight he could lift in the air without touching it, but he wasn’t going to test it out. He felt like there was a name for such an ability, surely one better than “the-ability-to-move-things-without-touching-them.” He’d have to ask John later.

Chippy stacked the logs up carefully, being sure to set them up in such a way that they wouldn’t fall over while he and John slept through the night. He used the leaves that he had gathered earlier to make a roof that let in a little bit of sunlight and was pretty to look at from inside.

“They keep falling in, what if I…” Chippy had noticed that some of the trees had sticky stuff running down the sides of them. It was sap, if he remembered correctly.

“Hah, I’m a genius!” Chippy stood back and proudly looked at his creation once he was done with it. He had used the sap to stick the leaves together so his roof wouldn’t fall in anymore. It felt like he really had accomplished something.

    Now they just needed something to sleep on. This sand wasn’t very comfortable. Chippy then took his leftover leaves and stacked them on top of each other to form a makeshift bed. Then, he repeated the process on the other side of the small shack to make a bed for John. It wasn’t much, but it’d get them through the night. 

“I wonder how John plans to get off this island?” If John was as important as he claimed to be, he surely had a plan for anything, right? The sun was starting to set in the horizon, it would only be a little while now before it was dark.

Chippy decided that he should make a fire next. It’d keep them warm during the night and it’d give him something else to do while John was gone. Chippy took the remaining branches and sticks and stacked them together in a big pile. It should burn pretty easily, at least he thought. He had a general idea of how to make a fire, yet another odd thing that he knew for no reason.

Chippy took a stick and spun it in the pile with the others, but it quickly tired his arms out. Not even a single spark formed before he had to take a break.

“That’s not gonna work… there’s gotta be another- Aha!” Chippy remembered the glass that was on the metal he used to get here. If his theory was right, then that glass could amplify the sun’s rays. It was fairly curved and had the word “Landing Lens” printed in small text on the corner. If they were a lens, then they’d definitely work.

“I’ll have that float right there, start spinning the stick here...” Chippy had the glass float right in front of the setting sun and got back to work. This time, his arms were tired again, but he knew he couldn’t give up.

“Come on… come on…” Chippy kept rubbing the stick. Soon enough, he saw smoke.

“Almost there!” Just as Chippy’s arms were about to give out, a spark formed, and a small fire appeared. He fell backwards into the sand and felt the heat of his accomplishment warm his feet.

“Yes!” Chippy put his hands behind his head and smiled. He had done something else useful.

A shelter, a fire, and John was coming back with food. Chippy saw them both as pro survivalists. He sat up, and that’s when something hit him. John had been gone for a while. If he was just going to get food, he’d be back by now.

“Maybe I should go look for him, just in case.” Chippy got up and ventured back into the jungle. He had only really stayed on the edge of it when he was cutting down trees, so he never got a chance to see what it looked like deeper inside.

Well, he still didn’t have a chance. It was too dark now to see most of his surroundings, and he could only see what was directly around him.

“I guess I should have done this earlier, huh?” Chippy slowly walked through the thick brush and listened to the sounds of the jungle. A lot of them he couldn’t identify, but he assumed that they mostly belonged to various animals enjoying the night. Then, one sound that didn’t belong invaded the others.

“Chippy!” A yell came from Chippy’s left. The only other thing that could talk on this island was John, and if he was yelling, it wasn’t good.

“John? What’s wrong?” Chippy yelled back into the darkness.

“Chippy, over here! Help!” John yelled back. If John needed help, there must’ve really been trouble. Chippy began running as fast as he could towards John’s voice. He was going so fast that his feet weren’t touching the ground. No, it wasn’t because he was going that fast. He was using that trick on himself! He was flying!

“Woah, hey now!” Chippy didn’t truly know how to control it yet, so he was cautious about accidentally falling back down. He was appreciative of the speed boost, though.

He saw a small clearing just up ahead, and he stopped floating in the air. He couldn’t get himself going again; maybe it was something he could only do if he really had to. In reality, he still had no idea how he managed to make other things float, much less himself. He’d have to work on that later.

“John?!” Chippy broke into the clearing and saw exactly why John needed help. He hadn’t even taken into consideration the possibility that an animal might attack him. Well, even if he had, he never would have thought that this would be the animal to do so.

“What the—how did a tiger get onto an island?” Chippy stared in awe at the giant beast of the jungle. How did it get all the way out here?

“Now is not the time to question things, Chippy!”

John must have been fending the tiger off with one arm. Chippy looked at his other arm, and it appeared John had made a makeshift cast out of leaves. What a cool guy.

Chippy glanced down at John’s leg. Mud was slathered over the wounds. John had dug the shrapnel out himself and rubbed on mud to prevent infection, then he wrapped in it more leaves to stop any possible bleeding. Chippy wondered just how much he had been through to know to do all that.

The tiger prowled around them in a circle. Its eyes were full of two things: anger and hunger. It growled and snarled as it walked, making it clear that Chippy and John were in its territory and it wanted them out.

“John? How do I fight a tiger?” Chippy slowly backed away from the beast, which had stopped in its tracks and looked as if it were ready to pounce.

“Aim for the face and avoid the teeth. That’s all I can tell you.” John stood behind Chippy. He hated to have someone else fight for him, especially a subject, but he wouldn’t be able to do anything in the state he was in.

“Got it, I’ll do my best.” Chippy instinctually puffed himself up to make him look bigger. Speaking of instinct, an idea came to his head just before the tiger came after him. Maybe, just maybe, he would be able to replicate that explosion thing now that he was in a life-threatening situation. It’d be a risk, but it was his best chance to win.

“Take this! Hah!” Chippy stuck his arms out in front of him, just in case he fell over due to the explosion. He then stood there, nothing happened. He stood there with his arms out like a fool.

“Chippy, what are you doing?!” John quickly looked back and forth between Chippy and the tiger, it was over. Chippy was standing there wide open against an apex predator.

The tiger then leaped towards Chippy, ready to claw him into slivers and have a nice meal. Chippy didn’t even have a chance to react before it pounced. He was dead meat.

But then, the air around Chippy began to heat up, specifically near his hands. The heat became more and more intense until actual flames surrounded his hands. Once Chippy realized what was going on, the heat immediately left him in the shape of a fiery ball and shot right through the tiger. Its middle was instantly incinerated, and it died on the spot. 

           Chippy looked in awe at his hands and the power they contained. He hadn’t meant to do that—he only wanted to make a small explosion to scare it away. It wouldn’t be lying to say even he was a little afraid of what he now knew he was capable of.

John felt something different. While Chippy was definitely not the most dangerous thing John had dealt with, he seemed to discover new abilities every few hours. John feared what would happen to him if ordinary people found out about Chippy’s abilities. He’d have to be contained indefinitely if they did, and he didn’t want to do that, not anymore.

“…Chippy? How often have you used your powers while we’ve been separated?” John worried that Chippy was becoming a bit too comfortable with using them.

“I’ve uh… I’ve used them a few times.” Chippy tried to make himself sound as good as possible. He knew that John didn’t like it, so he needed to do damage control.

“I’m glad that you saved me, twice now, but please—”

“Only use them when absolutely necessary.” Chippy finished John’s sentence for him.

“Good, you seem to understand.” John looked at the now-dead tiger on the ground. He raised his eyebrows and then looked back to Chippy

“Well, at least you can defend yourself.” John then turned his back to Chippy and slowly began to walk out of the jungle.

“What do we do about the tiger? We can’t just leave him there.” Chippy looked at the poor thing. It had only wanted to defend itself and its territory; it didn’t deserve this.

“There’s no point in lugging a dead tiger around for no reason. The meat isn’t even good. Just let it return to the ground that it came from.” John cold-heartedly continued walking, not even taking a moment to glance back at the tiger.

“If you say so…” Chippy looked at it one last time, and then followed behind John, back towards the beach.

“I really do wonder how it got here. There’s no way it could’ve swam all this way, right?” Chippy only thought that aquatic animals and birds could make it out here as there was no other land in sight.

“The world has many great mysteries—this is just another one of them. If I had to guess, somebody probably brought it out here themselves, and it managed to survive because there wasn’t anything that could kill it. Not until now, anyway.” Chippy decided that was a good enough explanation, but why would somebody bring a tiger out to this island? The questions just kept coming.

“What? Chippy, did you build this?” As John emerged from the jungle, he saw a medium-sized shack out on the beach. It was made entirely out of logs and leaves, and there were embers of a fire nearby. It was almost as if somebody lived here. There was no way Chippy could build this all by himself in just the span of a few hours.

Well, unless…

“Yeah, I built it. I used my powers, though. Sorry, John.” John put his hands on his hips and looked up and down the small building.

“Well, at the very least we have shelter, and that’s all that matters right now. We’ll sleep through the night and leave by morning. Understood?” Chippy nodded his head. He still didn’t know how they were going to leave, but he was sure John had a plan.

John and Chippy walked into their shelter. John glanced down towards the leaf bed, grinning as he laid down on it. Before going to bed, John ate a few of the fruits he had collected while he was in the jungle; he refused to go to sleep on an empty stomach. Chippy decided to eat some too. They didn’t say much to each other as they ate—they were too hungry to focus on conversation. He didn’t quite know what fruit it was, but it was sweet and not poisonous. That’s all that mattered.

“You know, for a life-threatening subject, you’re alright.” John turned over in his bed after he finished his food, quickly falling asleep like he had trained himself to do years back.

“I guess I should sleep, too. No point in staying up.” Chippy laid down in his own bed and put his hands behind his head, similar to how he did when he very first woke up in space.

“There really is no time to think, huh?” Chippy muttered to himself as he drifted off into the realm of unconsciousness.

There really was no time to think, even in his dreams. Images flashed past him as he dreamt. He saw the same six people again with three lights forming a triangle—and, hey, was that an orange with limbs? Regardless of the small, random things that Chippy saw, one thing stuck out to him.

In front of him sat a dog. This wasn’t any ordinary dog, though. This dog was massive, far taller than Chippy, perhaps even taller than a skyscraper. He had a white patch of fur on his chest and a few white toes. The rest of his fur almost glistened slightly blue, but Chippy knew that dogs couldn’t be blue, so it was probably just the light reflecting his average gray fur.

The breed looked to be that of a Great Dane. While he knew that those kinds of dogs were big, there was no way that an average dog could be this huge.

“Well, hello there, what are you doing in this…” Chippy looked around to see his surroundings. This caused him to realize that he actually had control of his movements, unlike other dreams and visions he had been in. When he looked around, all he saw was a light gray void.

“…uh, void?” Chippy continued his sentence. The dog merely looked down on him. He couldn’t help but feel slightly intimidated.

“Mortals,” the dog said. Wait a minute, the dog could speak? Well, if this was a dream, Chippy supposed that anything was possible.

“Mortals? That’s uh… That’s a weird way to address someone.” Chippy looked up at the dog. It almost seemed to smile in a weird way.

“It seems that we’ve met each other once again. Have no doubt that I will crush you this time, once and for all.” The dog laid down on the invisible floor that Chippy stood on, getting very close to him.

“I think you might be mistaking me for someone else. I don’t know any giant dogs.” Chippy backed away from the dog’s giant massive paw. A single one of his claws was taller than Chippy.

“I see, so that’s how it is… you will understand in due time, Chippy.” Chippy then woke up gasping for air. Why did he feel so frightened? It was just a dog. He wasn’t even acting threatening, just confusing.

“Chippy, are you okay?” John had been sitting outside of the shack looking into the horizon. He peered in once he heard Chippy’s gasps.

“Y—yeah. I’m fine,” Chippy lied. “It was just a nightmare.”. Why did he feel so afraid?

“Well, whatever was in your dream can’t hurt you now. Judging from the sun, it’s about six in the morning. We could head out now, if you like.” Chippy quickly nodded his head. He wanted off of this island. Something about it was off-putting 

John walked further out onto the beach, near where they had first come ashore.

“How are we going to get out of here?” Chippy didn’t see anything around but the sea. There was nowhere for them to go.

“We’ll leave the same way that we got here. Chippy, now is perhaps the only time that you will ever hear me say this: I need you to use your powers.” John stood on perhaps the only remaining part of the plane. Well, the only part that anyone would ever see again, at least.

“Really? Are you sure about that?” It was weird to see John support Chippy’s abilities in any way, especially telling him to use them.

“Assuming that you can replicate what you did yesterday, then that’s our only timely way off this island, and I have far better things to do than sit here in the sand with a broken arm.” John made a hand motion for Chippy to come to him.

“I think I can do it, let’s see…” Chippy focused on the metal below him, blocking out any possible distractions.

“Focus, come on…” After around thirty seconds of trying, the platform finally lifted, and they managed to get moving.

“Go that way. Judging from the time we crashed and the direction we were going, there should be land that way.” John pointed outwards and to the right a little. It was amazing how he knew directions so well.

“Got it. I’ll start going that way.” Chippy made a pushing motion forward, which seemingly helped  him get going. Soon enough, they were on a steady pace away from the island.

“Goodbye island! We’ll never forget what you did for us!” Chippy yelled out to the landmass. It was sort of fun being stranded, but he was happy that they were leaving.

“The energy of being young, heh.” John looked back at the island himself. It wouldn’t be a bad place to have a vacation if he had the right supplies. Maybe he’d come here by himself sometime, once he was finished with Chippy.

* * *

Jerry had been highly stressed lately. Taking on ASI was a lot more responsibility than he had imagined. He had no idea how a guy as old as John kept up with everything that came his way.

“I’ll figure it out. It’s all a matter of time…” Jerry quickly typed on his keyboard and responded to countless emails that asked countless questions. He had a typing speed of over one hundred words per minute, which he was proud of. However, even his impressive typing skills couldn’t save him from the onslaught of emails that were constantly shot at him.

“Regardless, I want to take over this business and make it better than ever before. If I have to make sacrifices, I’ll do it.” Jerry took a short break to rest his fingers. They had been going at it for hours. He hoped today was just exceptionally busy.

“John’s really taken a liking to that Chippy.” Jerry had recently finally gotten someone to tell him what had happened to John five years ago, and it wasn’t pretty. It was only natural that Chippy reminded him of his son. They were similar in many ways. He just hoped that John’s emotions didn’t blind his intuition.

“Hm?” Jerry read one email that stated an ASI jet’s engine had failed and the tracker for it was lost out at sea. It was a rarity for any of ASI’s technology to fail, but Jerry could guess why it had.

“The Hamil Faction… they’ve gone too far this time. A whole jet? I bet they wanted to get rid of Chippy, maybe even John too.” Jerry knew better, however. John was too smart to not find a way back to land. This would only slow him down.

“Heh, that dang Hamil Faction,” Jerry muttered to himself as he continued to go through his emails.

* * *

“How long do you think it’ll take us to get there?” Chippy didn’t feel any pain yet, but he feared doing this for a long period of time might begin to hurt his head.

“I’d say at least a day or so, given the rate we’re going. Though it could be much more or much less. I have no way of telling exactly where we are. Just keep heading that way and we’ll hit land eventually.” Chippy didn’t like that answer. Hopefully he could keep the metal floating until he got to land.

“You know, I wonder what the scientific explanation for your powers are. They’re just so strange and mysterious. I’ve documented telekinesis and explosions so far. Oh, and that fire thing that you did to the tiger, so probably temperature changing abilities along with pyrokinesis. Who knows what else you’re capable of?” Telekinesis. So that was the word Chippy was looking for before.

“Yeah, it’s really weird when you’re the one that has them. It’s almost like I’m using a muscle whenever I do something—that is, if I can actually control it. I still haven’t been able to replicate the explosion.” Chippy wished he knew how he could make it happen without his life at stake, but he supposed that it wasn’t entirely necessary.

“Let’s keep it that way. There’s no need to have the ability to cause explosions at will.” John smirked at the thought of Chippy causing explosions while strolling down a neighborhood sidewalk.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Chippy still wished he knew how to do it though, just in case.

“I’ll bet that the explosions stem from being able to change the temperature, you know, like the fire. It might be similar to how you use ingredients to make recipes. Each individual ingredient that you have could be combined to make something new. It seems like you’ve kept going straight to the recipes, not knowing how to use the ingredients. If you could figure out what all of your base powers are, then the ways you could apply them are endless.” John had to admit that he was interested in Chippy's powers, but he couldn’t allow them to be used all the time. It was just too dangerous.

“Something like that.” Chippy thought that John’s explanation was a little confusing, but he got it for the most part. If he could create a blast of fire like he had, then would that stem from being able to change the temperature?

“That’s not even mentioning the fact that you came from space. I know you say that you just randomly woke up, but I can’t help but think that you must have some kind of past that you just don’t remember. Some sort of amnesia situation, perhaps? Ah, I suppose my job isn’t to figure out your past, I’m just supposed to make sure you aren’t dangerous.” Chippy and John continued to discuss the matter of Chippy’s powers as they floated across the seemingly endless sea. John told stories about previous subjects he had contained, some extremely dangerous, some comically weak. They splashed themselves with water occasionally to cool off. It was a good thing they had an ample amount around, or else they’d probably have a heat stroke.

“There was this one blob of goo that I personally helped out with a few years back. It’s about the size of my foot and dissolves almost anything it touches. It uses that ability to hunt its prey.”

“Prey? You mean it’s sentient?”

“Yep, you definitely aren’t the weirdest thing I’ve ever worked with. Be happy that you at least look human. That’s the only thing keeping you out of one of my cells.” John tried to move his arm to do something but recoiled in pain.

“Agh, I hate broken bones. I can’t remember the last time I had one as bad as this. I should be happy, though. I survived a plane crash.” Chippy felt bad for John. Even if he said that the plane crash wasn’t his fault, he still wished that he didn’t have to go through this pain. If only there was some way that he could…

“Ow! What’s wrong with it?!” Chippy quickly looked back at John, who had fallen over onto his side. His arm twitched and convulsed into unnatural positions, and it looked like he was in pain.

“John, what’s going on?!” The metal shook as Chippy lost his focus, but he was too concerned about John to care.

John groaned in pain as his arm shot into various directions that it definitely should not have. Then, just as soon as it began, it stopped.

“What… what just happened?” John looked at his arm and lifted it up. He took it out of his cast of leaves and analyzed it closer. He then shook it around a little. He felt no pain.

“Chippy, did you… did you do this?” John slowly got up, careful not to do anything too harsh to his arm.

“Did I?” Chippy looked at John’s arm. It was completely healed.

“I was only wishing I could help you somehow. I didn’t actually mean to do anything. Do you think it really could have been me?” Chippy didn’t think that merely thinking about something would make it happen, but he supposed that he had done things without even trying to before. It wasn’t completely impossible.

“I think you may have discovered another one of those ‘recipes’ that we were just talking about. If my theory is correct, then you just used your telekinetic powers to mend the bones inside of my arm without even being able to see them.” John continued to look at his arm. It was hard for him to believe that it was fully healed.

Chippy, on the other hand, began to feel a lot more tired than he had before. Assuming John was correct, healing something so intricate and fragile without being able to see it took a lot out of him. He had already started to get tired from holding the metal up for hours on end, and now this caused him to begin developing another headache.

“Well, for the third time now, I thank you for helping me. However, it is now apparent to me that you cannot control your powers fully. When we get back to the mainland, I’ll have to put you through special training in order to assure that you can hold yourself back.” John seemed to avoid eye contact while saying this. That training, he hated putting people through it. It reminded him too much of…

“Okay, I’ll do whatever I have to.” Chippy was incredibly determined to live a normal life—that was his goal from the beginning. If he had to go through training, he’d do it.

“I like you, Chippy. While you aren’t the most dangerous or the most odd, you’re definitely the most agreeable.” Chippy smiled after John complimented him. It let him know that he wasn’t all serious.

“John, this trip has taken a lot of time, and my head’s starting to hurt. Can I speed up this metal?” John had a slight look of confusion.

“You’re meaning to tell me that you could have been making this thing go faster this entire time? Why didn’t you? We could have saved so much time!” John couldn’t possibly think why Chippy wouldn’t make it go as fast as possible. He wanted this to be over just as much as he did, right? 

“Well, you know, it looks like you’re getting a little up there in age, and I didn’t want to hurt your arm any more than it already was.” John couldn’t believe that was Chippy’s reasoning. Plus, did he really look that old?

“I’ll be fine, I’ve fallen out of plenty of aircrafts before. If I fall off, then pick me up, and we’ll get going again.” Chippy grinned and mentally pushed the metal harder. It was funny to imagine John falling out of vehicle after vehicle. Maybe it was bad luck.

“Alright, hold on to something…” John looked around, and there was nothing to grab on to. He laid down on the platform and held onto the front of it, careful not to touch any parts that were too sharp. 

“Here we go!” Chippy pushed his arms out in front of him, and the metal went blasting forwards, leaving a wake in the water despite hovering over it. Chippy nearly lost his own balance after the quick transition.

“Woah, this is like a rollercoaster! Woohoo!” John laughed as water splashed onto his face. It had been so long since he had just enjoyed himself. It was nice to finally have fun.

“We’ll be there in no time at this speed! Just keep it up, Chippy!” Chippy was having fun himself. Feeling the wind blow on his face with a few droplets of water in the afternoon heat was just what he needed. Had he even had a chance in his life yet just to have fun? He didn’t remember anything like this.

After just a few more hours of happily riding across the waves, land was finally in sight. A port to some small, coastal town was their ticket back to their mission.

“This definitely isn’t Russia. We’ll have to take another flight—hopefully our next vehicle doesn’t fail us. Go ahead and slow us down, we don’t want to attract any attention coming in here.” Chippy followed orders and slowed down. Luckily, the port wasn’t too busy, so it was easy to get in without anyone seeing them. They climbed off of the metal and onto one of the docks. It looked like they were more for recreation and less for actual jobs.

Chippy’s headache had started to get worse, so he was glad when he could finally let that metal sink down to the watery depths of the ocean.

“The end of an era, huh?” Chippy watched as the metal slowly descended until it could no longer be seen.

“You could say something like that. Now come on, we have work to do.” John walked down the dock. He had hardly taken any time to look at the final remains of his old plane.

“Cold,” Chippy muttered. He followed John down the dock. How did he know where he was going?

“John, where are we going? You can’t just know everywhere in the world, right?” John didn’t seem to be walking in any particular direction.

“No, I don’t know everywhere in the world. Right now, I’m looking for a person.” John looked around, and most people were in cars. 

“Y’know, back when I was young, people walked everywhere. All this new tech is too much for me to keep up with, that’s why Jerry’s replacing me.” John reminisced about the old days where it was easy to talk to someone on the street. Now, it seemed as if everyone was boxed in a vehicle.

“Who’re you looking for? Are they someone important, too?” John grinned as Chippy said this. Was he really that clueless?

“No, I’m looking for someone to give me directions. If I can get to a police station, I can use their phone and get us going again. Aha, there’s someone.” John spotted someone on the corner of a street and headed towards them. For some reason, it was hard for Chippy to see someone like John asking for directions.

“Excuse me, sir. Could you point me in the direction of the nearest police station? I need to make a phone call.” The man turned around and it was clear that he wasn’t… well, let’s just say that it was apparent he hadn’t made the best decisions in life.

He wore dirty, ragged clothes with holes in them. He held a sign that read “HOMELESS, PLEASE SPARE SOME CHANGE." and had a hat in front of him with a few coins in it that Chippy thought looked odd; they weren’t the kind that he had seen before. 

“Australian coins, hm? So we’re in Australia, good to know,” John muttered to himself. The beggar pointed westward and John thanked him.

“Keep on keepin’ on.” John pulled a wallet out of his pocket and gave the beggar a five dollar bill. He looked at it and dropped it in his hat.

“I know this isn’t the right type of money, but I hope it helps.” John began to walk in the direction that the beggar had pointed in, it had been ages since he donated to one. Since he mostly traveled by air, he hardly ever saw them; he was more than willing to give up some money for them, though. ASI was one of the richest companies in the world, he could spare a little. Just as John was about to leave, though, the situation turned.

“Oi, I saw more moneh in that wallet o’ yours. Wouldn’t ya be a pal and give a lil’ more?” The beggar had stood up and got close behind John. He seemed to be ignoring Chippy. John definitely did look wealthier than Chippy, though. The suit he was in just looked like it was expensive, even if it was a little wet and sandy from the island.

“Don’t push your luck. I‘d happily take the money I just gave you if I were you.” John gave the beggar a bit of a stink eye, letting him know that he should buzz off.

“Come on now. We’re mates, aren’t we?” The beggar now stood in front of John. He had a heavy accent, and Chippy could only assume that it was native to this country.

     “Come on, Chippy. Some people don’t seem to know when to give up.” John ignored the beggar and kept on walking. Chippy followed closely behind. Something about this guy was off, and it wasn’t just his appearance. He definitely wanted to stay close to John.

     “I see we can’t come to an agrehment. I suppose I’ll just have to take it, old-timah!” The beggar suddenly grabbed John’s arm and tried to use it to flip him over, but John only lost his balance. After a war of wills and strength, John managed to remain standing tall. Chippy was afraid of the scene that might play out. If John was about to get into a fight, could he really defend himself without any kind of weapon?

     “Old-timer? That isn’t a nice thing to call someone who just gave you five dollars.” John balled his hand into a fist and stuck out two fingers. He then plunged them into the beggar’s rib cage. The beggar collapsed and coughed on the ground. John took him out in one hit, with just two fingers! That was amazing!

John sighed. “Even the criminals these days are disappointing.” He brushed himself off, then continued on walking.

“John! How did you do that? Is he okay?” Chippy watched over the man on the ground. He was still breathing, but he seemed to have lost consciousness.

“The human body is full of pressure points that act as weak spots. If you hit one directly, then you can knock out your opponent in a single hit. Sort of like an Achilles’ heel.” Chippy put some pressure on his rib cage where it looked like John had hit the beggar, but he didn’t feel anything.

“You have to be incredibly precise, you wouldn’t hit it after just a few tries without training. Now come on, we’ve wasted enough time here.” Chippy couldn’t believe that John was just carrying on as if nothing had happened.

“Are we just going to leave him here? What if he tries to hurt someone else?” Chippy looked back at the beggar on the ground, he was still laying there.

“My job is to deal with anomalous objects and creatures, not ordinary thugs. The police will take care of him eventually.” John didn’t seem to care about the beggar whatsoever, so Chippy decided that he shouldn’t, either. If John wasn’t worried, there was no need for him to be.

After walking a mile or so, the duo finally found the police station that the beggar had told them about. John went inside and Chippy followed, eager to see what was going to happen next.

“Can I help you?” An officer asked. He was sitting in a chair and had some form of a drink in his hand. It appeared to be coffee, but it was so light that it may as well just be milk and sugar. This slightly disgusted John, who liked his coffee straight black. John brought out his wallet once more and showed the man a gold, plastic card with his face on it. It had a strange barcode, along with a serial number printed onto it.

“Scan this,” John said simply. The police officer brought out his phone with a suspicious look on his face. He scanned the barcode and typed in the serial number on an app that seemed to be exclusively for police. Then, a large, green check mark appeared on his screen, signaling that John and Chippy were okay.

“Alright, do whatever you need to.” The officer took a sip of his sugary drink and waved them away.

“Thanks.” John then made his way towards the back of the station, away from the main area.

“What just happened? How’d he know to just let you through like that?” Chippy looked back at the officer, and he didn’t even bat an eye.

“Being as important as I am comes with its perks. All I have to do is show a card and I have the legal right to do almost anything I want, that includes using the utilities of any building without question.” John paused in front of a phone and picked it up. He then dialed a number on it that would finally connect him with the rest of ASI once more.

“Give me a few minutes, we’re always cautious with our calls. We don’t want anyone randomly prank-calling us and finding out about ASI.” The phone rang a few times, and after about three rings, somebody finally picked up. John then proceeded to talk in a quiet voice, so quiet that Chippy could barely even hear him.

Chippy then glanced around a corner and saw cells, similar to what he saw in John’s base. These cells were much less secure, though. Thin people could fit through them with enough effort.

Chippy looked back at John and he was still busy. He decided to look through the room and see what was in the cells while he waited. Could they be things similar to the bizarre entities that were in John’s bases?

Chippy slowly walked through the room with the cells and saw only people inside. They all seemed to be angry at him, or maybe they were angry at something else. Regardless, they all looked angry.

“Who’s this clown?” One of the people inside a cell spoke with a gravelly voice. It had been entirely silent before, so it caused Chippy to quickly turn his head.

“Clown?” Chippy looked around him for someone wearing a red wig and white makeup, but he didn’t see anyone that fit the description.

“I don’t see any clowns, who are you talking about?” Chippy looked back at the inmate, and he now looked even angrier.

“You’re the clown, idiot.” The inmate shifted on the bed that he sat on. More eyes in the other cells seemed to be watching Chippy now, it almost felt a little disturbing. Chippy wondered just how much longer John’s phone call would take.

“You stupid or something?” The inmate stood at the bars now, with his hands gripping two of them. He was a large man, definitely over six foot tall. He was even more intimidating than he was big.

“I, uh, I don’t think so. I haven’t taken an IQ test, though, so I’m not sure.” The inmate snorted and a few chuckles could be heard from the other cells.

“What’s so funny? All I did was answer your question.” Chippy didn’t know why they would laugh. He didn’t find anything particularly funny. Maybe it was his newborn-like innocence crippling him again.

“No reason. Y’know what? C’mere, I wanna tell you something.” The inmate waved for Chippy to come closer, so he did.

“What do you want to—” before Chippy could finish his sentence, the inmate reached through the bars and grabbed him by the neck. Just one of his large hands could wrap halfway around Chippy’s neck with ease.

“This… isn’t very comfortable.” Chippy could barely get out words. The inmate kept tightening his crushing grip until it almost felt like he couldn’t breathe.

“See the key on the table right there? I want you to grab it and give it to me.” The inmate then pointed to a key ring full of keys sitting on a coffee table. It had been just out of his reach for far too long. Now, he finally had the idiot he needed to get them for him. Just a few days before his transport to an actual prison, too. How lucky!

Chippy, on the other hand, was in a pickle. He didn’t want to be choked out, that was for sure, but he didn’t want the criminals to get out, either. It was clear to him now why they were in here, and he couldn’t just let them free; that would put him in even more trouble than he already was.

“Hurry it up, before one of the guards come around.” Chippy knew what he had to do. Technically his life was in danger, and just one more time couldn’t hurt, right?

Chippy focused on the fingers of the inmate and concentrated on making them move off of his neck. Soon enough, they snapped back. Chippy made sure not to bend them back too far, just enough to hurt.

“Ow! What the? How’d you-? Agh! You won’t be so lucky next time, punk!” The inmate suddenly let go of Chippy and he was set free. He reached through his cell, desperately trying to grab onto Chippy, but he was just out of reach, there was no way that he was going to reach him.

“Nice talking to you, I gotta go!” Chippy briskly walked out of the room, not wanting to attract any more attention. As he turned the corner, he watched John put the phone back on the receiver, it seemed he was just on time.

“I’ve called in a nearby helicopter to pick us up. They’ll bring us to our next stop. Let’s wait outside, I don’t want to bother these people any more than I already have.” John began to leave the building and glanced at the people in the cells, they all looked especially angry. He supposed that if he was going to prison, he would be angry, too. As Chippy and John left the station, they could see a helicopter in the air. Could that already be their ride?

“Talk about fast service, huh?” Chippy nudged John.

“Whenever I make an order, it’s followed through with nigh-instantaneously. Of course, there‘s a base in every city in the world, so it would never take that long for them to get here.” A base near every city in the world? That had to be a ton of bases. How many cities were there? Thousands? Millions?

“It’s amazing how ASI just seems to be everywhere.” John nodded his head in response to Chippy, but he wasn’t to blame for their widespread influence. His ancestors from many years before set up ASI and got the leaders of all countries to agree that it was a good idea, which made him occasionally wonder how difficult that would be nowadays. The helicopter then landed in the middle of the street, perfectly between two cars that were parked parallel.

“Don’t you think that people might be suspicious of a random helicopter landing in a street?” Chippy looked around. There were a few people driving around in cars, but nobody on foot.

“People are willing to accept a lot of things that don’t make sense. A helicopter landing in an odd spot likely won’t even get a news story. C’mon, let’s get out of here before people actually do start to question us.”

Chippy hopped into the helicopter and John followed behind him. He was now slightly scared by flying vehicles, but he would tough it out. As soon as John and Chippy got settled in, they took off into the sky. Chippy glanced at the pilot as they flew, it wasn’t anyone he knew. They looked straight ahead and focused on their job, almost mechanically.

“So, didn’t you say that we’d be going somewhere to help me control my powers?” Chippy thought that sounded pretty cool. Being able to use them whenever he wanted? That’d be amazing! He already could lift things with his mind, he could only imagine what it would be like if he could control those explosions and blasts, too.

“Not control, suppress. It’ll train you to get out of emergency situations without using those abilities of yours. If you use them to get out when you’re in real trouble, people will question how you did it, then I’ll have to interfere.” John pursed his lips after he spoke. This training brought back memories that he didn’t like.

“I guess that’s what I should go for if I just want to live normally. It’s kinda boring that I don’t get to use them, but I’ll do whatever I have to.” Chippy looked out his window and saw a base with a capital C on it. This ASI base wasn’t hidden whatsoever.

“What does that C stand for?” Chippy asked.

“You don’t need to know that. I will tell you, however, that this base is disguised as an actual army base. People believe that this is a strategic point for the Australian navy, but in reality, it’s just another one of my bases. We just so happened to be near one that has a proper training room for what we need to achieve for today. There’s usually only one of these every five-thousand miles. You’re a very lucky subject, Chippy. You know that?” Chippy nodded his head. He had to consider himself fairly lucky after everything John had told him; he could be in a cell right now if he didn’t look human. Even if his life had been difficult, it was still far better than what it could have been.

The helicopter landed on a helipad and John led Chippy to stairs that descended into yet another base. There were two guards in front of the door holding guns, but they got out of John’s way as soon as they saw him.

“You really are important, aren’t you, John?” John grinned after Chippy said this.

“Mhm,” he responded quietly. It took Chippy’s eyes a minute or so to adjust, these things were always so dark.

“Why are these bases so dim? Surely lighting can’t cost that much.” Chippy felt bad for the subjects who had to live their whole lives here.

“They’re bright where they need to be, you just happen to always end up where they aren’t brightly lit. Lucky you.” John implied Chippy was lucky that he didn’t see the lit part of the base and he could understand why. He shuddered at the thought of living here forever.

“Right through here and we’ll be in the training room, go on.” Chippy went in front of John and entered the room. John stayed behind the doorway, however.

“Aren’t you going to help me?” John looked down and to the side, then the door sealed shut in front of him.

“John? John! What’s going on?” Chippy banged on the door, but he only hurt his hands in doing so. It was made of metal so thick and sealed so tight that not even air could pass through it.

Chippy heard a noise in back of him, so he turned around and looked for the cause. A TV slowly came down from the ceiling with what looked to be a very old tape playing on it.

Chippy walked closer and saw John on the screen, except he looked a few years younger. He looked slightly more muscular and his usual stubble was cleanly shaven. A few of his usual wrinkles were gone, and there looked to be more life in his eyes.

“Hello there!” Chippy would be lying if he said the voice didn’t surprise him. Instead of the deep, old voice he was used to, a happy, upbeat one came from the TV. It was weird hearing him sound so happy, what could’ve changed in him in just a few years? He estimated that the video was only taken about five years back.

“As ASI slowly begins the process of breaking away from its pure containment policy, this video tape has been recorded for the tentatively named Chizo Training Process, or CTP.” The man on the screen paused for a moment. Chippy anxiously awaited what he had to say next.

“My name is John Johnson, I am the leader of ASI. I’m sure we’ve introduced ourselves to you by now, so we’ll save you your time. In these trials, you will go through life-threatening situations in which you will be tempted to use whatever anomalous abilities you may have. However, a recently discovered, special element known as chizon will constantly suppress any ability you may have. While we do not know much yet about said element, we do know that it is perfect for this trial. I will not disclose to you any information regarding the trials, as it is up to you to get through them with any method possible. Remember, anything is fair game now that your powers are no longer available.” The TV then went to static, and then went black. It slowly rose back up into the ceiling, and the hatch that it came through closed.

“Well, John… I wonder what my first trial will be?” Chippy looked around the room, but it was fairly barren; all he saw were a few vents here and there. He thought it was odd that the room had so many, he counted at least five.

There were a few other marks of those who came before him in this room. There were some areas where the metal of the wall was exposed, as the paint had been completely scraped off. A few of the marks actually dug even deeper into the wall. Just what had taken this test before him?

Chippy then became curious and tried to lift his clothes upwards with his telekinesis, just to test if he truly couldn’t use his abilities. Even if he strained his head and focused as hard as he could, he couldn’t make them move even an inch.

“That chizi stuff or whatever must be pretty effective.” Chippy commented on the chizon, but he didn’t quite remember the name correctly. It didn’t matter though, it probably wouldn’t be very important.

Chippy walked towards one of the various vents in the room to inspect it. He assumed that his first trial was to simply escape this room, but that couldn’t be too hard. All he had to do was find a way to get out of this room…

     “That’s weird, shouldn’t vents… Uh oh.” Chippy bent down, put his hand on the vent, and instead of feeling air coming out of it or simply stagnant air, he felt the vent sucking air in. That’s when it hit him; he wasn’t just trying to find a way out of the room, he had to find one quickly, before he ran out of oxygen entirely. The vents were slowly draining him of his supply, and the room was airtight.

        “No, no, stop!” Chippy banged on the vent, but it was to no avail. It kept draining the room of oxygen bit by bit.

      “Stop it!” Chippy banged on the vent one last time and left his fist there. He didn’t know if John would actually let him suffocate, but he didn’t want to test it. He felt as the vent gently pulled on his hand, wanting to get to the air that he was blocking.

    “That… That gives me an idea!” Chippy spread his hand out on the vent and it began to pull on him harder. It hurt a little as his skin was forced onto the cold metal, but he could bear it.

“Come on, work!” Chippy put his other hand on the vent and it began to pull even harder. He spread his fingers out, and just about fully blocked the vent.

It started to make a funny squeaking noise, one that you would expect from a machine not doing its job properly. A few clicks echoed out of it, and it then stopped pulling entirely. Chippy had broken the machine.

       “Take that! Stupid vent, I knew you looked suspicious.” Chippy stood back up and looked around. He checked out all the other vents and they had shut down, too. They must have all been part of the same system.

        Suddenly, a door opened behind Chippy. He looked back at it and it led into another large room very similar to the one he was in.

        “I don’t have to find a way out? I guess I just have to eliminate whatever threat they throw at me.” Chippy walked out of the room into the next one. With his newfound knowledge of his goal, these tasks would be much more simple.

        The door quickly sealed shut behind him and made a sound akin to pressurized air being released. This place was incredibly secure, wasn’t it?

        “Any TVs wanna tell me what I’m doing this time?” Chippy spoke out to no one. Not even a faint whisper of static came to comfort him.

        “I guess I’m on my own.” Chippy observed his surroundings and noticed something about this room that was different from the last. It seemed to be a victim of water damage, as if it had suffered a leaky ceiling or something.

        “You’d think that there wouldn’t be any leaking in a place like this, I guess every building has its problems, though.” Chippy did notice that some sort of cylinder with an open bottom hung from the ceiling. What was the deal with that?

* * *

        “Hello? Yeah, I’ve got him going through the training now.” John could hear the vent break a few rooms away. That was the most common way subjects stopped that trial. Well, it was more common for them to fail, but the ones that didn’t almost always destroyed the vent.

        “Great, it’s always good to get them to learn how to problem solve without their abilities. Another step towards his freedom, I say.” Jerry was on the phone with John. They were on other sides of the world, but they could still talk to each other as if they were in the same room without a landline. John was born in 1946, so the technology that had come out since then always amazed him.

        “I hate this training though, you know… Well, I’m sure they’ve told you why at this point.” John looked down and felt his spirits drop. Anything that reminded him of that day instantly brought him down.

        “…Your son, I’m assuming?”

        “Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.” A moment of silence was shared between the two. They both knew what happened now, and it was hard to talk about.

        “I’m sorry, John. Hopefully you can get past it someday.” Jerry had empathy for John. He couldn’t imagine going through what John had to, it must have been grueling every single day.

        “What about you, Jerry? How’s being the boss of ASI treating you?” John quickly changed subjects, he hated talking about his son. It made him much more upset than he’d like to admit.

        “It’s been stressful, that’s for sure, but I think I’m getting the hang of it. Hamil Faction activities have been ramping up lately, though. I think they know that you’re out, so they’re seeing what they can get away with. I bet that the plane crash you were in was related to them somehow.” John didn’t like to hear that. He had hoped that they wouldn’t become too harmful, however it seemed like they were only getting more dangerous.

        “More subject assassinations?” John had recalled at least eight instances in the past month where subjects had been killed by an unauthorized ASI bullet.

        “Yeah, they’re such cowards. What could they hope to achieve by just killing a few of an endless amount of subjects at a time? Their motives are a mystery, and always will be.” John heard water start pouring one room away, Chippy must have begun the second trial.

        “I’ll talk to you later, Jerry. Chippy’s about halfway finished with his trials. Make sure to investigate the Hamil Faction as much as you can, okay? I want them caught before they become an even worse threat than they already are.”

        “Understood, talk to you later, John.” They said their goodbyes and hung up their phones. They were both performing very different tasks, and yet their jobs were both just as strenuous as the other’s. That’s what came with being part of ASI.

        “I’m glad I’m getting out of that swirling disaster after this mission, I’m getting too old to keep up with all the stress.” John sat cross-legged on the floor in wait of Chippy. He wondered how long it would take for him to finish the trial he was in, or if he’d finish it at all.

* * *

        “This is not fun!” Chippy was now calf-deep in cold water. The cylinder he had seen on the wall turned out to be a water pump, and he had no way of turning it off. If he didn’t stop the gushing water, then he would either drown or fail the trial, whichever ASI decided for him.

        “How am I supposed to stop this?” Chippy tried covering the pump with his hands like he had with the vent, but it was too big. There was no way he would be able to fully block it.

        “Think, think!” Chippy raked his brain for a solution, and then thought of something.

        “If anything is allowed… I can use anything on me!” Chippy, now in knee-deep water, quickly took off his shirt and shoved it deep into the water pump. His arm almost went all the way in, but the shirt finally got caught in one of the moving components of the pump. He nicked his finger inside it as well, drawing a few drops of blood. The pump sputtered as it clogged with the hoodie, the movement within it stopped, and the water stopped coming out.

        “Ow! Ugh, I guess it could have been worse.” Chippy brought his hand out of the pump and shook it out. His finger hurt, but that wouldn’t stop him.

        “Did I do it?” Chippy looked more closely at the pump, and was then startled once a door to his right opened up. The water flowed into the next room and was slowly sucked down a drain in the middle of the floor.

        “I’ll take that as a yes, then.” Chippy waded through the remaining water, which wasn’t much, into the next room. Just what else could they test him with at this point?

        The door once more shut behind him, and he was in a new room. He couldn’t see anything in this room that was any different from the past two, though. There were no vents, no pumps, nothing. It was just a cubic room with nothing else to it.

        Or so he thought. Just as he started to wander around, looking for anything that could be considered a trial, a loud, mechanical noise filled the room. Then, the walls began to move in closer towards him.

        “Oh, come on! Why are they all death traps?” Chippy watched as the walls slowly began to close in on him. He wasn’t going to have much time to think, he had to find a way to stop the walls before they crushed him.

        “There’s got to be something I can use…” Chippy looked around the barren room, then realized that there was indeed something that he could use.

        “The drain!” Chippy dashed towards the drain as fast as he could. The walls were now only about five feet away from him on each side, he’d have to be fast.

        He dove towards the hole in the ground and desperately pulled on the cover of it. It stayed in place, but it did wiggle around a little.

        “Come on, budge!” With one last heave of all his might, Chippy pulled up on the drain lid and ripped it away from where it belonged. Now, the walls were only about one foot away on each side. Chippy stuck the drain lid out in front of him and let the walls press onto the sides of it. However, the walls hardly slowed. They began to press the drain lid into a flat metal.

        “That’s not good.” Chippy stood on his toes and made sure he was parallel to the wall. Standing like this, he only had a few inches before it would begin to press on him.

        “Come on, lid!” The walls had just begun to touch Chippy on both sides, he had only seconds left.

        Then, with a horrible screeching sound, the walls came to a halt. They stopped just before Chippy would have to sacrifice his chest.

        “Phew, that was close!” Chippy realized he had been holding his breath, so he tried to exhale, but there wasn’t enough space for him to do so all the way.

        “Talk about cramped, I couldn’t imagine if this was real danger. There’s no way I would have been calm enough to make it out.” Chippy assumed that ASI wouldn’t just let him die in a trial; that was brutal, even for them.

        Another door opened, however the walls stayed in place. Chippy slowly inched towards the door, he couldn’t go very quickly with the walls pressing on him so much. He inhaled deeply as soon as he made it through, it was a relief to be out of that room. It was probably his least favorite one yet. Of all of the rooms he had been in, he felt like that one was the most dangerous. Though in this next room, he was certainly the most surprised. What awaited him wasn’t a trial, but John himself.

        “John! Those trials were crazy! How did you come up with them?” Chippy looked back at the door that had shut behind him, the rooms he had conquered felt incredibly realistic. A few times, he actually thought his life was in danger. John didn’t respond, though. He simply stood in the center of the room, staring at Chippy.

        “Is something wrong?” Chippy knew John was certainly mysterious in many ways, but it wasn’t like him to just stand there.

        “Chippy, I am your final trial. Your final challenge is to beat a highly trained professional in combat without the use of your abilities. It’s similar to how you fought Niko that one time…” John trailed off, seemingly lost in thought.

        “Except I have thirty years of experience under my belt running ASI alone, not to mention the fifteen years before that where I constantly helped my father with it. This will be the fight of your life, Chippy. Prepare yourself.” John got into a fighting stance and waved a finger towards himself. He wasn’t prepared to relive this memory, the memory of fighting his son in a room just like this after putting him through trials just like the ones Chippy went through, but he had to do it. He had to make sure that Chippy was ready. He’d put his feelings aside for now and give Chippy exactly what he deserved. No, not deserved, but needed.

        “John, are you sure? I don’t feel comfortable fighting you…” John was Chippy’s only friend, and now he had to fight him? All for what? So he wouldn’t use something that made him just a little different? It was so unfair. Why did the world have to be this way?

        “It’s fine, Chippy. Let’s get this over with.” John charged at Chippy, much faster than it looked like a guy his age could go. Chippy managed to sidestep him and land a blow directly in his stomach. Somehow, it hurt Chippy more than it hurt John.

        John ignored the pain and quickly turned around. He grabbed Chippy by the arm and threw him over his shoulder, causing him to get his breath knocked out of him as he landed on the floor with a loud thud.

        “I didn’t know you could do that! You’re much stronger than you look.” Chippy looked up at John from the ground, who stood over him. Were those tears in his eyes? Why would he be sad right now?

        “An enemy will strike with any spare moment they can get. Get up.” Chippy then did what John said. He managed to land a few hits on John, as he had sprung up much faster than he had expected to, but John quickly counterattacked by kneeing his chest. In all reality, neither opponent seemed to be trying their hardest to beat the other. Some may even consider the fight fake-looking or boring. They both were holding back, not truly wanting to hurt each other.

        Chippy managed to tackle John to the ground, but John somehow managed to do a flip backwards instead of falling over. For an old guy, he sure was agile. Chippy was left on the floor alone once more. All alone, that’s how he felt right now. In just a moment, all of his thoughts came together at one time. His only friend was against him. He wanted this to end so they could go back to being friends, not enemies.

        “Let’s get this over with.” Chippy stood up one more time, this time strangely serious. He ran at John, who was still defenseless after his flip, and landed punch after punch. He didn’t care what he was doing now, he just wanted it over.

        How… How was he doing this? John thought to himself as he took blow after blow. He was a trained professional that shouldn’t lose to many people in a fight. He couldn’t even land an attack on Chippy, what was stopping him?

It then came to him; nothing was stopping him. It wasn’t that he couldn’t easily beat Chippy, it was that he wouldn’t. He didn’t want to hurt Chippy even if he was getting hurt himself. He had gotten too close to Chippy to be able to properly train him. What a failure he was. The only other time that he hadn’t been able to train a subject was… His son. His son that he had lost so long ago was still affecting him to this day. 

        Chippy was just like his son. They looked similar, they had similar personalities, and they both were anomalous. Chippy was far too much like him, he couldn’t bring himself to relive this same event all over again.

        After one final blow from Chippy, John stumbled backwards and fell onto his rear. Chippy stood above him and looked down on him. He was upset about the situation, too. They weren’t getting anything done. John let out a large sigh as he sat on the ground, defeated not by Chippy, but by his own emotions.

        “Congratulations, Chippy. You passed the trial. Let’s get out of here and actually do something productive.” John slowly stood up and made sure to face away from Chippy. He wasn’t sure if he could look at him right now without fully breaking down.

        “Yeah, I don’t like fighting.” Even in his sadness, John grinned. With that sentence, he didn’t have to worry about Chippy. His powers were already suppressed enough by his personality.

        John walked straight towards a wall and a hidden door opened for him. It was amazing how he knew where everything was, even the secrets of the building.

        “When your entire life revolves around one thing, you tend to know a lot about it.” John responded to a question that Chippy didn’t ask. He was trying his very best to continue on as if he hadn’t relived one of the worst moments of his life. He needed to continue on, he needed to help Chippy.

        Chippy followed John through the final door of this gauntlet of challenges and was greeted with a scene he hadn’t expected to see. Instead of another barren room or a depressing hallway, there was a fully furnished living room. There was artwork hanging on the walls, a sofa with a widescreen TV in front of it, and even a decorative plant in the corner.

        There was also a seamless transition into a kitchen to Chippy’s right, as well as another door at the far side of the room. It was like a small house within the base itself.

        “Woah, I didn’t expect to see this in one of your bases. What is this place?” Chippy had to admit that he almost felt at home inside of the small living area. Though, he never had a home before, so he supposed feeling at home may not be very hard to achieve for him.

        “This is an ASI living quarters. Every base has one in case I happen to need to stay at one. We’ll stay here for a little while and clean ourselves up. We haven’t had a break for a while, and I don’t think that you’ve showered once since I met you. You can go ahead and go first, I trust you know how to handle a shower?” Chippy nodded in response, and John then pointed to the door on the other side of the living room, it must have been the bathroom.

“While you’re in there, I’ll—”John was cut off by his phone suddenly ringing in his pocket. He took it out and looked at the screen.

        “That’s odd, Jerry’s never had to call me before… Well, I guess while you’re in there I’ll take this call. Try to hurry it up, this room doesn’t have the greatest supply of hot water.” Chippy nodded once more and left John to his phone call. He shut the door to the bathroom, and began the process of his shower.

“Hello? Jerry? What’s wrong?” Jerry seemed to be in a frenzy on the phone. John could hear him panting heavily and shuffling things around him, presumably on a desk.

        “John, you have to get Chippy out of those trials, now! Hurry!” Jerry was yelling over the phone. John brought it away from his ear, he didn’t need to have a harder time hearing than he already did.

        “Jerry, calm down. He’s already finished with the trials. Why are you acting like this?” John could hear Jerry breathe a sigh of relief.

        “John, I just got the data back from the first trial, and somebody tampered with the machines. The trials are supposed to stop just before they would be fatal to a subject, but somebody completely deleted that segment of the code; they would have just kept going until Chippy bit the dust. We need to be more careful, John. The Hamil Faction is out for blood right now, and they’re pulling out all the stops to eliminate Chippy.” John’s face remained expressionless, he was in deep thought right now. Chippy was just in real danger, he could have died in any of those trials.

        “Okay, Jerry. I’ll be more careful from here on out. Thank you for telling me all this, I think I’ll keep it from Chippy, though. Ignorance is bliss, you know?” Jerry chuckled on the other end.

        “Yeah, I wouldn’t like knowing that my life was in danger three times in a row, either. Alright John, talk to you later.”

        “Bye.” John shoved his phone back in his pocket and massaged his temples. He was getting a headache from all this stress.

        “Why do they keep doing this? If only I could see into the mind of them, or whoever leads them.” John walked to the kitchen area and opened up the fridge. He took an apple out of it and began to eat.

        “Stress eating… It’s been a while since I last did this,” John muttered as he took another bite out of the apple.

    “Okay, I can operate a shower, yeah. It can’t be too hard, right?” Chippy looked at the mechanism in front of him. All he had to do was turn the handle and he would be on his way. He undressed himself, hopped in the shower, and turned on the water.

        Then, he had another vision. He hadn’t even felt the water touch him before he was instantly transferred into someone else’s body once more. His immediate reaction was to look upwards and check his hair color to see if it was the same as before. This time, his hair was blue, a deep, royal blue. He liked this color.

        Chippy watched as this body moved for him. He walked towards a figure huddled in a corner, it seemed to be scared. Its body definitely looked odd, but Chippy couldn’t exactly describe what was wrong, everything was too hazy to determine exact details.

        Suddenly, a loud noise broke the usual silence of his visions. He looked through a window next to him and saw the same giant black mass he had seen in the vision where he jumped out of the aircraft. He still didn’t know what it was, but his body forced him to run towards it. He leaped out of the window, only to realize that he had to be about five stories high. Something formed under him, though. It formed fast, and he stepped on it to run in the air before it could even fall. It looked like a crystal, almost. It was pure, clear, and had a gemlike appearance. More formed for him whenever he took another step, and he was running through the air.

        “Agh, this water is cold!” Chippy snapped out of his vision and nearly slipped and fell over. The water was freezing like ice, how did it not bother him before now? He retreated to the very corner of the shower, where it couldn’t touch him anymore.

        “Turn the handle more!” John yelled out to Chippy from the other room. Chippy did exactly that, making the water temperature bearable.

After about an hour, Chippy finished washing himself and got out of the shower. The room was very steamy, things were obscured by the evaporated water even a few feet away from Chippy’s face.

        “This is a major step-up from that cold water.” Chippy closed his eyes and sighed in satisfaction. This was his first shower ever, and it felt great to be clean.

        He looked through the cabinets for after-shower supplies, most importantly clothes. Once he brushed his hair back into its usual side swoop and put on lotion, he dressed himself and was ready to take on the world. He opened the door to the bathroom and saw John sitting in a chair reading a book. It was titled ‘Antimatter and you,’ written by someone with the pen-name Nano. It was likely a complicated subject that Chippy wouldn’t understand.

        “I got tired of waiting on you and decided to use a company shower, so I’m cleaned up now. I suppose we ought to start making our way to Russia again, hm?” John put his book down and stood up, he raring to go. Even more, he was ready to have this mission over with and live happily in retired life. Chippy had to admit that he was chomping at the bit to go, too. If they didn’t have any more interruptions, it couldn’t take too much longer to go to those four countries and get him a normal life, right?

        “Yeah, let’s go, I'm ready.” This caused John to smile.

        “That’s what I like to hear.” John pressed what looked to be a reclining button on his chair, but instead of reclining it, it opened a door on the east side of the room that Chippy hadn’t even seen before.

        “What’s with all of the hidden doors in this place? Don’t you lose the buttons for them sometimes?” Chippy would never remember that a recliner button would open a door, and there were thousands of ASI bases all across the world. Just how many different things could John remember?

        “There are very few different layouts between ASI bases. Once you’ve memorized the secret mechanics of one of them, you’ve memorized the secret mechanics of about a tenth of them. There’s no point in things being different, it’d only be more complicated.” Chippy thought about that for a moment. There were so many of these bases across the world, and there were only about ten different variants? That was so weird.

        “Let’s get going.” John walked towards the now-open doorway and it led to a hangar full of different types of flying vehicles. The hangar was very similar to the one in the first base Chippy had been in, but this one was indoors.

        “Oh, Chippy, before we go…” John looked at his right arm, then back forward.

“While you were in the shower, I got the doctors to scan my arm and treat my leg wounds the rest of the way. When they looked at it, they said that there was no evidence of it ever being broken and there was no need for a cast. There wasn’t even a shard of a bone out of place. So, thank you, Chippy. Thank you for fixing my arm.” John didn’t look at Chippy as he said this, he just kept walking forward.

        “Oh, uh, no problem! I’d do whatever it takes to help you out.” John stopped in place for just a moment before walking again.

        “You’re just like him,” he said. Chippy didn’t know who he was talking about, but he supposed he shouldn’t pry.

        “Now, let’s see if we can’t… Hey, is that?” John looked over at where the helicopters were kept in the base and saw Niko. What was she doing in Australia?

        “Niko! I thought you were on vacation!” John speedily walked towards her, he seemed to have an affinity for this pilot. Chippy made sure to be careful not to make eye contact with her, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.

        “Yeah, I was supposed to get an all-expense paid trip to wherever I wanted for three weeks since I risked my life fighting somebody…” Niko teased Chippy, he said nothing.

        “But the guys at this base apparently had a shortage of pilots ‘cause of some outbreak of food poisoning, so they begged me to come here and convinced me with triple pay.” Niko reached into her pocket and brought out several hundred dollar bills, presumably what she had been paid to work today.

        “Well, how fortunate for you. You get to work for your favorite company even more.” John let out a chuckle, his personality almost seemed to slightly change around Niko, why was he acting like this?

        “Heh, yeah. Whatever, flying is my passion, so getting to do it all the time is hardly a job.” Niko looked behind her and stared up at a giant helicopter. It had always been her dream since she was little to fly one of these things, and now she did it as a job? Life was good.

        “That’s an attitude that I like to see. Now, we have a fairly long flight to go on, and I’m leery of jets right now, so I was going to request that someone fly us to where we need to go. It seems we were in just the right place at just the right time, would you like to bring us to Russia?” Niko’s eyes lit up at the thought of being able to transport John himself, the man that was at the very top of ASI. On top of that, she would be transporting an anomalous subject as well. A real anomalous subject!

        “I’d love to!” Niko was ecstatic about doing this, it would be her first super important mission, not just bringing supplies to different bases. She had waited more than a year for this mission, and it was finally upon her.

        “Excellent! Well, we’ll get in the back, and you can make any preparations that you need before we go, understood?” Niko nodded, and then looked at Chippy. She had noticed that he hadn’t spoken once, being a subject trying to fight for his freedom must’ve been difficult on him.

        “Hey, don’t worry, Chippy. I know that you must be stressed out right now, but think of it this way; you’ll get to travel the world! Lots of people don’t ever leave their country, and you’ve already been in quite a few, plus international waters! I’ll make this trip as comfortable as possible for you. Just sit down, relax, and leave all of your problems to me, at least for a few hours.” Chippy finally managed to make eye contact with Niko while she was saying this. She was even prettier than he remembered, was it her outfit being different? No, that couldn’t be it.

        “O—okay. I’ll try to focus on my mission.” Niko gave Chippy a smile, then walked to the back of a nearby helicopter, apparently the one that she decided to use on this mission.

        “You know, Chippy, for being an entity from space that nobody can determine the origin of, it’s pretty easy to determine your feelings.” John teased Chippy quietly as he walked towards the helicopter.

        “What’s that supposed to mean?” Chippy knew what John meant, though. He knew exactly what he meant.

        “You couldn’t have been more obvious, Chippy. If you’re going to hide your feelings, at least try to do it well.” John climbed into the helicopter, still making sure that Niko couldn’t hear him.

        “Shut up, John.” Chippy showed his first form of aggression towards John during his time on Earth, and it was because he was messing with him. Despite his aggression, it only caused John to smile wider.

        “Alright, are we ready to take off?” Niko got into the driver’s seat of the helicopter and John nodded his head. Chippy didn’t move much besides shifting to look out the window, he was both angry and embarrassed. Was he really as obvious as John said he was? Whatever, he had to ignore that. He had a mission to focus on, and it required his full attention.

        “Chippy, why don’t you watch a movie while we’re on this flight? It’d give you something to do rather than try to form explosions on an aircraft.”

        “What?” Niko thought that she heard something about aircrafts blowing up, what was happening?

        “Nothing! You’re doing great, Niko!” John reached into a pouch that was on the back of the seat in front of him. He pulled out three different movies, each with their own interesting images on their cases. Chippy noticed DVD players attached to the back of the heads of the front seats. As serious as ASI was, they still were pretty generous when it came to comfort.

        “That one.” Chippy picked out a case that had a British man on the cover. He had a silly-looking facial expression and was jumping in an odd manner, it looked like it would be funny.

        John inserted the disc into the DVD player and Chippy did his best to sit back and relax like Niko had said to. He strapped a pair of noise-canceling headphones on his head and began his movie.

        He was correct about the movie being a comedy. It was pretty dumb, but in a good way. He watched the entire movie, and then two sequels. It was amazing to him that so much money could be squeezed out of something as stupid as them. Once he was finished with the movies, the sun had set outside, and they were no longer over land. There was nothing interesting for him to look at, it was all just open ocean. He probably could have requested another movie, but he was too tired for that. He closed his eyes and quickly fell asleep.

        That sleep was perhaps the first sleep he had ever had that was fully restful. No visions, no giant dogs, just pure, black sleep. He needed it, too. He was starting to feel mentally exhausted up until now, so it was necessary that he had a break.

        The break didn’t last nearly long enough, though. After sleeping for what seemed like just minutes, but was likely closer to several hours, he was shook awake by John. It was a much colder environment than what he had been used to before, even if he hadn’t left the helicopter yet, he could already feel the difference. It was still night, making it even colder.

        “Huh? Where are we?” Chippy got out of the helicopter in a sluggish manner, it appeared both Niko and John were already fully prepared outside.

        “We’re in Russia, Chippy. It’s time to finally take your first step towards freedom.” Chippy looked all around him, the buildings were much different than what he had seen before in other countries. He couldn’t exactly put his finger on how they were different, but he supposed it was just the building style.

        “I hope you both enjoyed your flight! I’ll be resting at base 132-C before I head back to Australia, so if you need me, you know where to find me.” Niko then climbed back into her helicopter, started it up, and then flew away. John waved at her as she left, so Chippy did as well.

        “Okay, during our flight, I scheduled a meeting with the Russian president for tomorrow. We have until then to come up with a plan to make him think that ending the searches he has going for you is a good idea understood? Now, where should we go for now?” John noticed that Chippy hadn’t said anything. He turned around to see him and noticed him staring up in the direction of the helicopter.

        “Chippy?” John tapped Chippy’s shoulder, but he didn’t respond.

        “Niko…” Chippy muttered. John rolled his eyes and grinned. He hadn’t seen someone this infatuated with someone since he was in high school, so he decided that he’d have a bit of fun with it.

        “What was that? Chippy, did you say Niko?” Chippy finally turned back towards John and waved his hands back and forth.

        “N- No! I said, uh… My knees are cold! Yeah, it’s really cold here, brr!” Chippy put his hands on his knees, doing his best to make it look like he was warming them up.

        “Unfortunately for you, Chippy, knees cold is pronounced with the ol sound, not the oh sound. Did you hear the question that I asked?” Chippy put his hands in his hoodie pockets and went back to a normal posture again. He was red in the face, but John couldn’t tell if it was because he was embarrassed or because of the cold.

        “Uhm, you asked where we should go, right?” John nodded. He had a mischievous look on his face, though.

        “Well, you still answered my question. We’ll go to the base that Niko’s at and see if she can help us come up with a speech or something. Three heads are better than two, they always say.” Chippy’s stomach dropped and his eyes widened. John couldn’t seriously be thinking about going to her, right?

        “No, no, no! It was a mistake, we don’t have to go bother her! It’s been a long flight here, so she should get her rest.” Chippy frantically tried to convince John not to go to Niko, but it was too late, he had already made up his mind.

        “Come on, Chippy. You should be happy that you got to make a choice, it’s not often that you get to do that.” John grabbed Chippy’s arm and dragged him along, off to the base that Niko said she would be at. While he was usually a serious individual, he still liked to have his fun. Plus, they had an entire day before they needed to talk to the president, anyway.

        “I’m being serious, John! We don’t need to go there. We’d just be wasting time, right?” At this point, Chippy knew that there was no changing John’s mind, but that wasn’t going to stop him.

        “Lucky for us, 132-C should be fairly close by, we won’t even need a car to get there.” Chippy had to admit that he was tempted to use his powers to break free of John’s grip, but he didn’t want to make his situation worse than it already was. He wished he would have just been listening to John, but he had to let his mind wander. He wouldn’t let this happen again… Probably.

        After about a five minute walk where Chippy was struggling against John’s grip the entire time, they finally came upon what looked to be a nursing home. It was fairly large and had a billboard towering above it with a picture of an elderly person sitting at a table.

        “Here we are, this is 132-C in disguise. Most of our bases have some other function to both act as a disguise and bring in extra income for our operations. Aren’t you happy that your grand plan is coming together?” John continued to antagonize Chippy, but he did his best to let it go. So long as he acted normal, he could play it off as him actually wanting extra help to come up with a speech. Hopefully, at least.

        “Yeah, so happy.” Chippy muttered this under his breath, along with something else that he didn’t quite want John to hear. Once the duo entered the building, it had all the signs of a typical nursing home. There were old people in wheelchairs and staff cleaning any messes that the seniors had made. Nobody would ever guess that this was a secret base if they didn’t know beforehand, they had no reason to. John walked towards a door with the words "Staff Only" and a nurse called out at him from the desk. He proceeded to take his wallet out of his pocket and flash his golden ASI badge, which caused her to quiet down and wave him off. He then went through the door and it led to an unpainted, narrow staircase illuminated only by a few square lights on the walls here and there.

        “I hate how you have access to everything.”

        “You only hate it when I use it against you.” Chippy also hated that this statement was true.

        “How do you even know when something is an ASI base? If they’re all disguised, then you can’t possibly memorize every single one.” Chippy resorted to a new tactic, one where instead of begging John to stop, he instead tried to distract him from his goal. He didn’t quite know why he was so resistant to going back to Niko, but all he knew was that it would embarrass him beyond words. He didn't have much time, either. The stairs led directly into a large, bustling hangar with several helicopters and even more people. How did helicopters get out of an underground area, anyway? When he had left the last one, he didn’t pay attention

        “Cities are laid out in very specific ways whenever they’re created. Each base is at relatively the same position in each city, close to certain buildings, far from others. If you can see what’s around, then you can determine where the nearest base is. It’s a skill that you get when you’ve been doing this for thirty years.” Just as John was about to start saying something else, likely something boring like the layouts of cities or something, he caught sight of Niko. It seemed that she was still unloading things out of her helicopter, she still had her pilot outfit on, too. Chippy noticed that John had let go of him once he finally found her, so he tried to slowly sneak away. Maybe, just maybe, he could still escape.

        “Ah, so you want to become a subject on the run, hm? If you did that, we’d have to capture you and imprison you as soon as we could. I’d advise against it.” Chippy pursed his lips and squeezed his eyes shut at that statement. Despite wanting to leave so bad, he couldn’t.

        “Hey, Niko!” John called out. Niko quickly turned her head, surprised to hear John’s voice again after such a short time.

        “Hello, Niko. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, but here we are.” Chippy begrudgingly followed John and took his final steps back to Niko. Who knew how John was going to try and embarrass him here? It was clear that he was having fun with it.

        “O—oh! Likewise! What are you doing back at this base so soon? You know I could have just flown you here, right?” Niko wondered if she had maybe done something wrong, but she couldn’t think of anything.

        “Well, just after you left, I was asking Chippy here… Uh, Chippy?” John thought Chippy was right next to him, but when he went to look at him, he wasn’t there. John turned around to look in back of him, and he saw Chippy standing at least twenty feet away from them.

        “Chippy, get over here! We have things to do!” Chippy finally walked right next to John, he remained silent.

        “As I was saying, I was discussing with Chippy where we should go to come up with plans for our meeting, and he said ‘Niko.’ I’m assuming that he saw something in you.” Niko’s eyes went from slightly weary-looking to entirely lit up once more. She was definitely excited at this opportunity.

        “Oh, you want my help? Sure! I’d be happy to help. I’ve always wanted to work with the higher-ups of ASI, and this is my chance.” Chippy breathed a sigh of relief, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

        “Excellent! Let’s go to my living quarters for now to discuss our plans. You never know if there may be a spy around, especially with the Hamil faction becoming a bigger threat as of late.” Niko nodded and did her best to look serious, though it was clear that under her guise, she was very excited to work with John himself. Chippy didn’t know if she was excited to work with him, though. He was an anomalous subject, so she should be, right? Regardless of what she thought, Chippy needed to focus on the task at hand. He was so close to being finished with one of the four countries, messing up now could be disastrous.

        They traveled across the entire hangar and finally came by a door. John opened it up and allowed both Chippy and Niko inside. It was identical to the other living quarters that Chippy had been in, John wasn’t lying when he said that they were all similar; everything down to the paintings on the wall were the same. They walked towards a table in the living room with four seats total. Chippy made sure to sit next to John, not Niko.

        “So, Niko, I’ll give you a quick description of Chippy’s case, then we’ll see what we can come up with.” John proceeded to give Niko the details of everything that had happened up until now. He told her about Chippy falling from space, the governments that had spies at the sight of the crash, and the overall plan to let Chippy go free. She retained her interest with every single word that John said, she was very into this.

        “So he’s one of those rare cases that we let go free, huh? That’s really cool, I love it when they get to live their own lives after such a rough start.” Niko glanced over to Chippy, who had been focused on one of the pictures on a shelf. It was the same photo of John with a woman and two children. They had to be John’s family, but where were they now?

        It was common for Chippy to space out, it seemed. He frequently had these visions of another time, but he wasn’t sure when. He wasn't even sure if it was another time, but instead delusions formed by his brain. Maybe he had hit himself on the head too hard during his fall; he never did figure out how he hit the ground, anyway.

        Regardless of his brain’s status or what the visions were, he began to have another one. This one didn’t seem to be related to the current situation, but a pure result of spacing out while others discussed something.

        He seemed to be at a beach. There was water in the background and seagulls flying in the sky. At least he thought they were seagulls, his vision was still hazy in these memories. There was a volleyball net in front of him, and the girl with pink hair was on the other side. Could that be the same girl that he had the body of in the bicycle vision?

        She threw a ball up into the air and hit it over the net, almost directly to Chippy himself, well, whoever Chippy was right now. His hair was being held back by something, so he couldn’t tell which mystery person he was. He jumped up and hit the ball back over the net, and this process repeated itself a few times before he gave a particularly weak hit. The girl ran up to the ball and spiked it. Instead of the ball slamming on the ground, though, it deflated in the air. That girl had hit the ball so hard, it couldn’t take the pressure of the blow and instead blew up. Chippy involuntarily laughed with the girl after they watched the now deflated ball slowly float to the ground. Then, just as soon as it began, the vision ended.

        Chippy once again found himself in John’s living quarters, it seemed that nobody had taken notice of him spacing out. He had the chair that kept him upright to thank for that.

        “Mhm. Now, with the information I’ve given you, do you have any potential things we could say to the president?” Niko looked up to the ceiling and thought about what they could say.

        “You know, if this guy has evidence of Chippy being anomalous already, then lying wouldn’t get us far. If we just told him the truth about Chippy having certain strange abilities, and the fact that Chippy here wouldn’t hurt a fly, then they’d have no reason not to trust us, especially knowing that we’ve dealt with so many things in the past.” Niko’s plan certainly seemed hopeful, but it relied a little too much on trust, something that was scarce among people that had this much power.

        “I was thinking more along the lines of saying that it wasn’t actually Chippy that they saw, but instead another subject that has the power to shapeshift who is now under our containment. Lying may not be the morally best way to go about it, but it would certainly have a better chance of success than trust alone.” John and Niko’s plans were very different. One told the complete truth, relying on trust, but the other one was a complete lie that could backfire if found out. These polar opposite plans both had their strengths and weaknesses, but the weaknesses were too glaring to go with either.

        “What if we told him I did fall from space, but don’t have any special abilities? It wouldn’t take as much trust, and we wouldn’t be lying as much, either.” Chippy suggested his own plan after John and Niko discussed their own for a bit and they both stopped and looked at him, they hadn’t really expected him to have any input. He had been silent this whole time, after all.

        “Now that I think about it, that might actually work.” John compared Chippy’s plan to his own, and despite both success rates being high, he determined that Chippy’s might be just a little safer.

        “I don’t like lying, but it’s still probably safer. Just try not to exaggerate too much, or else it could still backfire.” Chippy nodded his head. He didn’t like lying either, but he had to reach his goal of living normally, and if he had to lie to get there, then he’d do it.

        “Great, we’ve come up with a plan to persuade the president in under twenty minutes. Like I said before, we’ll meet up with him tomorrow. We should all get some rest before we go, even if some of us already slept on the helicopter ride.” John glanced at Chippy, who had already gotten a few hours of sleep before him or Niko.

        “Yeah, I've been awake for nearly twenty-four hours, so I definitely need to go to bed.” Niko rubbed her eyes and stretched out. Chippy marveled at how long she had been up. How did she manage to stay so energetic with such little sleep? He guessed some people must just be born with that ability.

        “I’ll sleep in my bedroom. Niko, you sleep in the guest bedroom; and Chippy, you sleep on the couch. I’ll wake you all up at seven, that way we have plenty of time to get ready and head off.” John got out of his chair and slowly paced to another door in the living quarters, likely his bedroom. Niko left towards the guest bedroom, and Chippy was left alone.

        “Nothing to do now but sleep more.” Chippy laid down on the couch that they had all been sitting on and spread his body across nearly the entire thing. He had slight trouble going to sleep that night, due to already having slept in the helicopter, but he still managed to eventually pass out.

        Chippy had a dream unlike his other dreams and visions that night. This dream was similar to the once he had with the giant dog, in that they both took place in a void, and all of his senses were completely functional, rather than being dulled. This time, instead of a dog accompanying him, there were three humanoid figures. They were a little bigger than an actual human, and they all floated in the air, forming a triangular shape. If they had lines between them, they would make a perfect triangle. One of the figures was light blue, one was neon green, and one was gold. Chippy noticed that he wasn’t affected by gravity, either. He could freely float wherever he wanted to. Well, it was sort of useless, considering there were only three things to float to.

        “Come to me, Chippy.” A voice came from the light blue figure. These things could talk?

         “Excuse me?” Chippy looked up at the figure, but it didn’t move at all. Perhaps it was only capable of making sound. Wait, if this was a dream, shouldn’t it be capable of anything? Maybe it chose to be still. Hold on, Chippy himself should be choosing what it does, shouldn’t he? This sure was confusing.

        “Don’t go to him, come to me!” The green figure called out to Chippy while he was trying to determine what to do. Chippy turned around and looked at it, but he wasn’t sure what he expected to see.

        “Choose me, I’m the only reliable one.” The gold figure spoke with a much more gravelly voice than the other two. It was slightly off-putting.

        “He lies straight to your face. I am the only correct option, choose me.” The blue figure spoke once more; all of them seemed to be against each other. “What’s going on? Why do you all want me to ‘choose’ one of you?” Chippy hoped to get more information out of the figures, so he asked them politely for it.

        “Those other two are not trustworthy. You must choose me.”

        “I’m the only correct option. Choose me and we will prosper.”

        “Ignore their fancy words, choose me and good things’ll happen!” The gold, blue, and green figures spoke in that order. If they wanted to be chosen so badly, they should be less cryptic.

        “If none of you tell me what’s going on, then I’ll just stick right here in the middle.” Chippy got into a sitting position to cement his stubbornness, but it didn’t really do much since he was floating anyway.

        “A horrible decision, really.”

        “Please don’t do this, we have a reason for you to come to us.”

        “Hey, hey, wait a second! Don’t just sit there!” The figures all seemed to agree on one thing, they didn’t like what Chippy was doing.

        “If all of you are saying that the others are the wrong choice, then the only right thing to do is not choose anyone.” Chippy thought he had solved the puzzle, but he sensed hostility coming from the figures, as if they were angry at him.

        “You’ve made the only wrong decision,” they all said in unison. Suddenly, the dog from his last dream appeared in front of him. He didn’t run up or anything, he just seemed to slowly fade into existence.

        “You’ve made the only right choice, child.” The dog violently attacked the figures. It sounded like it was hitting and biting on glass, but they managed not to break. The figures remained silent as they were being attacked with feet, tail, and mouth alike, however it was clear that they were suffering.

        “Hey, wait!” Chippy tried to float towards the dog, but just before he could reach him, he woke up gasping for air, with Niko and John standing over him.

        “Chippy, are you okay?” Niko asked as Chippy managed to slowly calm down his breathing. Why was he so startled after that dream? It wasn’t scary, but it was definitely weird.

        “I—I’m fine. It was just a nightmare.” Chippy lied. He didn’t want to worry anyone about his strange dreams, especially with how he was already considered dangerous by so many.

        “Must’ve been some nightmare. You kept yelling out random things in your sleep. I could make out the words neon and kill, along with the letter x. Do you remember anything about the dream?” Chippy thought about how he should describe his dream. It sounded crazy, but he didn’t know any way to make it sound better. He finally caved in and told both John and Niko all the details of the dream, down to the most minute things, like the personalities of the figures.

        “I’m no dream expert, but that just sounds like a random, weird dream to me. If you get one like it again, tell me.” John stood back up—he had been crouching since Chippy was low on the couch—and went back to his room. He didn’t have time to deal with this right now, he needed his sleep.

        “If there’s anything that’s bothering you, Chippy, just know that you can tell us. Okay?” Chippy nodded his head and Niko smiled at him. She got up and left for her own room, too. Once he knew he was alone, Chippy began to mutter to himself about his dream in an attempt to gather his thoughts.

        “Those figures… They almost seemed familiar. And that dog, too; he was the same giant dog from my dream on the island. What’s it supposed to mean?” Chippy continued to theorize for a little while, but he couldn’t come up with any definitive answer. He eventually gave up and went back to sleep, this time with no more dreams.

        Pressure had been mounting on Jerry’s back ever since John left. Running ASI was excruciating and there was never a break; even his weekends were full of work.

        He loved what he did, though. Protecting people from these monstrosities filled him with happiness. Knowing so many people relied on him just for their average life gave him the motivation to press on, even if he were running on fumes. Well, his fear of the Hamil Faction was quite stressful too.

        …His fear that he couldn’t keep it under his control much longer.

        Jerry had been the boss of the Hamil Faction of ASI for ten years now. The goal of the organization was to wipe out every and all anomalous subjects, no matter who they were. Now, he had got it to become a fairly harmless side-job of ASI. They made petitions and had protests to demand that certain subjects, especially dangerous ones, be euthanized. However, his control over it was beginning to be less and less.

        Jerry wanted to pacify the Hamil Faction. Before he became the boss of it, it had existed as a malevolent force for generations. When he was first introduced to ASI, due to a heritage thing, he was instantly introduced to the Hamil Faction as well. His dad had owned it before, then his grandpa, his great grandmother and so on and so forth. It had gone on for hundreds of years since ASI itself was founded, and he was next in line to take on ASI’s underbelly.

        When Jerry saw the horrors they did to these other living things, he was disgusted. They ruthlessly sacrificed their own men to kill and sometimes even torture and experiment on these poor creatures. They didn’t even care how dangerous they were, they’d do anything to kill off these things. Of course, due to ASI’s nigh-impenetrable security, they couldn’t kill much. However, they still managed to break through sometimes and kill off an innocent soul despite ASI’s best efforts.

        When Jerry became the leader, he made it much more passive. The Hamil Faction rebranded itself as a "peaceful protesting force," and most of the members went along with the rebranding. However, a select few still believed in the old ideals, and despite Jerry being the boss, still killed off subjects. More and more people had been joining the Hamil Faction as of late, and Jerry’s power was dwindling.

        The main problem was funds. Since they couldn’t take things from ASI directly, they had very limited access to resources. If they tried to take them from ASI itself, then they’d likely get caught. Jerry had been using his personal income, along with the incomes of other ASI members who had joined, to support it. With the bigger operatives its members had been taking, they were running out of cash to continue on. The money, the violence, the history, it was all too much stress for Jerry.

        That’s why if he could become the boss of ASI, he could kill off all of the subjects peacefully. The subjects would pass on without a fight, and money would no longer be a concern. He thought that the timing would work out perfectly, but his members were beginning to get restless, as apparent by their repeated attempts to kill certain subjects, like Chippy.

        Chippy… That man had the biggest target for the Hamil Faction on his back out of everyone he had ever seen. The raw power Chippy had, along with the powers he had yet to discover, made him everything that the Hamil Faction hated. They had already acted on their own twice now to try and kill him. Both the plane crash and malfunction of the trials were orchestrated by them without his permission. If he continued on like how he had been going, his leadership wouldn’t matter anymore. He either needed John to finish this mission so he could be promoted or some money, both of which seemed far out of reach.

        “I need a miracle.” Jerry sent his last email of the day and prepared to go to sleep. Just before he got under his covers, though, his phone rang; what inconvenient timing.

        “Hello?” Jerry held his head up with one hand while holding the phone with the other. He was exhausted, and he only had a measly six hours of sleep to get.

        “I hear you’re in need of money, Jerry, leader of the Hamil Faction of ASI.” Jerry was no longer tired, his adrenaline got rid of any hint of sleepiness. Who was on the phone right now? He didn’t recognize the voice, and how could they know he needed money?

        “I have a favor to ask of you, Jerry. If you can provide, then I’ll provide much more.”

    “Chippy, get up!” Chippy could feel someone tap on his head while they were running by. He slowly opened his eyes and sat upright, confused at what was going on.

        “Chippy, my alarm didn’t go off at the right time. We have to leave in five minutes if we don’t want to be late, get a move on! Put on a suit and dress pants, fast! What? He’s out sick today? Send in Tom, then!” John was on the phone while he commanded Chippy around. He could hear a hairdryer coming from somewhere else in the living quarters and John frantically pacing back and forth while talking on the phone. The time constraint then clicked in Chippy’s head, and he realized how fast he needed to go.

        “I gotta hurry!” Chippy sprang off the couch and flung open a nearby closet door. It was a small closet, but it could still hold quite a few clothes. Chippy saw several hoodies inside of the closet, which he had already determined to be his favorite type of clothing on Earth. He imagined himself in all the different designs, but unfortunately, he’d have to wear something a little less comfortable today.

        Chippy hurriedly took off his clothes and put on the outfit that John had told him to. He probably should have gone to a more private area, but with only having five minutes, he didn’t even think about it. He had a little trouble with the tie, but he eventually figured it out.

        “Huh, I look just like John in this.” Chippy caught a glance of his reflection in a picture frame, and it was true; John always wore the exact same kind of outfit.

        “You’d think that if someone wanted to remain anonymous, they’d wear something that looked more casual…” Chippy jogged towards the bathroom and opened the drawer. Niko was there styling her own hair, but they didn’t have time to talk right now. He brushed his hair into its usual side swoop and was finally ready. Niko left the room just before him, and he headed for the door right after her.

        “Hey John, did you realize that we’re all wearing the same outfit?” Chippy noticed how similar all of them looked. All three wore the exact same attire, the only difference being John’s glasses.

        “I did. Suits resemble professionalism, and we need all the professionalism we can get in order to convince this guy.” John held the door open for Chippy and Niko, so they went through it and headed for the stairwell to the exit. Chippy wondered why certain clothes were considered better than others when it came to making decisions, he didn’t think those should have any effect.

        The base was busy as always. There were people moving giant mechanisms back and forth, helicopter maintenance taking place, and somebody leaning on the wall while eating a cheeseburger.

        “Hey, that looks pretty good.” Chippy realized that he hadn’t eaten anything, and that he likely wouldn’t for a while. Oh well, he’d settle his hunger eventually.

        They made their way out of the hangar and walked through the nursing home, they didn’t seem to be as busy right now. Chippy wondered if those who worked in the nursing home even knew about ASI. They had to, didn’t they? If the workers knew, then were the elderly people in on it too? Just how deep did it go?

        They passed through the exit and entered the parking lot. John unlocked a car with a key that Chippy had never seen before. He must have had it in his pocket this whole time. Maybe it was a skeleton key of sorts, for every lock ASI had. Then again, if that key got out, it would be very dangerous. It was probably just an average key.

        “This car is a state-of-the-art ASI vehicle. It has plenty of functions in it that normal cars don’t have, however I’m afraid I won’t get to show you them today. We want to look as average as we possibly can.” John almost seemed to be showing off a little bit. Chippy wondered what hidden functions John could be talking about.

        “Chippy, once you get free, don’t do what I’m about to do.” John started up the car, then almost as soon as they were out on the road, he got on his phone and made a phone call to someone unknown. He talked about some kind of subject that affected dreams when nearby, but he talked about it as if it were an object. Chippy tended to forget that ASI collected items, not just living creatures.

       Since John was so busy, all Chippy had to do was talk to Niko. For some reason, he felt nervous about trying to start a conversation, but he pushed through his unnecessary emotions and did it anyway.

        “So… How long have you worked for John?” Niko, who had been looking out the window, turned to Chippy with a smile on her face. She always seemed to be in a good mood.

        “Hm? Oh, let’s see… I’ve only worked for John for about two years, but I’m already one of his head pilots. I uh… Heh, I have an obsession with vehicles. Something about them has interested me ever since I was young.” Chippy thought it was impressive that she was already so important to ASI even though she had only worked there for two years. She must’ve been really good at what she did.

        “Really? That’s amazing! The coolest thing I’ve ever done is fight a tiger, but that doesn’t compare to climbing a top secret organization so quickly.” Niko seemed taken back by what Chippy said. Did he say something wrong?

       “You fought a tiger? What I did doesn’t compare to that! How’d you get around to fighting a tiger, anyway?” Chippy went on to recount the tale of how he got stranded on an island with John and ended up facing off against a tiger. She showed interest throughout the whole story, it was almost unbelievable what Chippy had been through in his short time on Earth; she almost felt bad for him, in a way. Hopefully he’d get to live a normal life soon enough.

        They talked for a little while about each of their achievements, but Chippy ran out far faster than Niko. Not because she had an insane amount or anything, but because he hadn’t had many experiences yet.

        They finally reached their destination after about a thirty minute drive. Chippy began to feel nervous, though. If the president of Russia were in there right now, then this moment could make or break Chippy’s entire journey. Even if he did successfully convince him to let him go, then a fourth of Chippy’s adventure would already be over. Things were moving so fast, he wasn’t sure if he was ready for it.

        “Let’s go consult with a world leader.” John parallel parked the car and got out. Niko got out after him, and then Chippy stayed in for a second or two. Things were about to get serious.

        Chippy got out of the car and followed John and Niko into the large building that awaited them. This building housed one of the integral men that could decide Chippy’s fate, and it was time to come face to face with destiny.

        “Here I go.” Chippy walked into the doors of the Russian White House, into his fate. The building was very large and had many rooms. It was cubic in design and the Russian flag waved atop it. It was menacing just to stand in front of, so the atmosphere almost changed once Chippy entered the building.

He could see that John and Niko were nervous just as he was. John tried to hide it behind his sunglasses, but at least Chippy could see that there was some form of worry on his face.

        “John, do you ever worry that people think you’re weird for wearing sunglasses all the time?” John pushed his glasses up, cementing that he wasn’t worried about that.

        “These glasses help me see better. I’m sixty years old, so my vision isn’t the greatest by itself anymore. Plus…” John pressed a button on the side of his glasses, and the shades somehow rolled up into the frame. All that was left were the lesnes, making them ordinary glasses.

        “They aren’t always sunglasses.” Chippy marveled at the incredible technology even just inside of John’s glasses, ASI was amazing.

        They quickly walked up to a reception desk and the receptionist pointed them towards a hallway to the right after John spoke a few words with them. Chippy and Niko followed John in silence as he led the way. He stopped in front of a door, took a deep breath, and walked right in.

        “Hello, Mister… Erm, I don’t seem to have your name on file. I apologize.” A man that looked older than John sat at the end of a long table that was seemingly used for meetings with lots of members. John took a seat at the other end, and Chippy and Niko took random seats in the middle. The man looked fairly old, at least in his late seventies. He had a horseshoe haircut and had a skinny frame, and despite his weak appearance, he carried a menacing aura with him.

        “Not many people do know my name. Call me John, I’m here for the meeting about the ASI clause.” John put both of his hands together on the table, so Chippy mimicked his movement. Niko left her hands in her lap.

        “If we’re going by first names, then call me Anton. It’s a pleasure to meet you, John.” Anton seemed to be a nice guy, why would he want Chippy dead?

        “That woman over there is Niko, one of my most skilled pilots; and that man is Chippy, the subject of our meeting.” Anton looked at them both and nodded his head, but he seemed to give Chippy a bit of a stink eye.

        “Isn’t he supposed to be locked up? Why is he here?” Anton pointed at Chippy, why would he think that?

        “I knew that if I told you he was coming, you wouldn’t show up. He deserves to be here just as much as any of us.” Anton’s smile had been replaced by a scowl, now Chippy could see that he might not like him. Before Anton could say anything else, John continued to speak.

        “Rather than me talking about someone else in the room, I’ll let him speak for himself. Chippy, go ahead and tell your story.” Chippy was slightly startled at how bold John suddenly became, he had been nervous just minutes before. Was this all a facade? No, he couldn’t even see a hint of fear on John’s face, his attitude had completely changed once he walked into this room. Chippy took a breath to relax himself, and then went on to tell a story sprinkled with just a few fibs.

        “You see, sir, I did fall out of the sky that day. I came from space, but I have no memory of anything from before then. Once I hit the Earth, aside from surviving such a large fall, I have never shown any signs of having weird abilities, nor have I ever wanted to hurt anyone or destroy anything. My mentality is like a normal human’s, so I just want to live a normal life. Anything that you may have seen was either fake or dramatically enhanced.” Chippy had been practicing his small speech in his head ever since he woke up this morning. He had been ready for this for a while.

        Anton seemed very skeptical of Chippy, he didn’t trust him at all. He picked up his phone and called someone down.

        “Hello? Yes, send in Jerald please. With police assistance, yes, do you think I’m stupid?” Anton put down his phone and stuck up his index finger, signaling them to wait.

        “Who’s Jerald?” Niko asked.

        “Someone who says they have proof that Chippy has unusual abilities.” The four of them waited for a moment, and then the door was slammed open by a burly man. His clothes were dirty, he looked beaten up, and he had tattoos all over him. Chippy recognized him as soon as he saw him; it was the same guy that had tried to attack him in the prison back in Australia. Chippy was at a loss for words. If this guy was here, then there was no way he could convince Anton to stop hunting him down. Apparently, ASI and John were the only things that were keeping Chippy out of the grasps of whatever government that could get to him first.

        “Hey, that’s the guy who almost broke my hand without even touchin’ it! He’s a freak!” Jerald pointed at Chippy, and Anton raised an eyebrow.

        “This man kept complaining about a weirdo who wandered around in a police station. He says that when Chippy got close to him, his fingers unnaturally bent backwards and almost broke. Through a fun game of telephone, that information eventually got to me. Do you have a way to explain yourself, Chippy?” Chippy didn’t have anything to say, though. How could he go against that argument? If he told the truth about Jerald grabbing his neck and him using his powers to defend himself, then Anton would know about them, and he’d be caught in a lie. Shouldn’t they have had cameras in the police station everywhere? No, that wouldn’t matter. If enough time passed, then they would just delete the footage. Jerald probably thought about that and waited until he knew that nobody would see that he tried to choke Chippy out.

        “Not to mention the dancing that broke out among all of your soldiers, John.” Anton referred back to when Chippy first landed, and how he used some sort of hypnotic suggestion to make all of John’s soldiers break out into dance. This wasn’t good.

        John cleared his throat to buy himself time. He had thought of an excuse for the dancing, but he hadn’t even heard of this incident with the prisoner. He’d have to think fast.

        “The dancing was a strategic plan using special weapons we have at ASI. When they detect a specific pattern, they switch to explosive shells. The soldiers are trained to synchronize said moves in order to be as efficient as possible. Now, as for the prisoner…” John hadn’t thought of anything in time, what would he do?

        “It’s true that instead of being transported to a prison to rot, he’s free right now due to extraneous circumstances, correct?” Niko suddenly spoke out before John could come up with anything, and it was lucky she did, because John wouldn’t have figured anything out, anyway.

        “That’s true, why might you ask?” Anton looked over at the criminal that stood near the entrance of the room, he certainly should be in prison right now. He had at least three counts of armed robbery against him.

        “It’s likely that a criminal like himself is lying in order to try and break free of being detained. Chippy probably just happened to be in the same police station as this guy for one reason or another, and he saw it as an opportunity to try and get out.” Anton pondered this for a moment, but he didn’t want to believe it.

        “Even if Jerald is untrustworthy, I am still not obligated to believe any of you. Why should I think that you all aren’t trying to trick me? You could be lying to my face right now.” Anton sure was stubborn, it was almost impossible to convince him to think in a different way. Chippy’s head also began to hurt him. He wasn’t sure why, though, it’s not like he was using his powers.

        “Anton, I’ll have you know that I wouldn’t even think of letting Chippy see the light of day again if I had the slightest inkling that he may possibly have violent tendencies. It would have been much easier for me to lock him up and never have to deal with him again, but I chose to help this man because that would be wrong of me. I have morals, Anton, and I trust that you do, too. If you are in your right mind, then you’ll stop any and all international arrest warrants for Chippy. Do you understand me?” John narrowed his eyes in an intimidating manner as he spoke. That alone would be enough for Chippy to agree, but he wasn’t sure he could say the same for Anton. Anton paused for a moment, and then inhaled deeply.

        “You know, John, I’ve always hated the ASI clause. The clause in which ASI, whatever exactly that is, is allowed to interfere with anything and everything that anyone ever does, including top governments trying to defend their civilians. Several times the governments of the world have tried to fix a problem on their own, but then a visitor from ASI comes along and does it themself. It infuriates me that you people think you hold so much power, and it makes me even more angry that every country at some point in the distant past signed some horrid bill giving ASI such power. I’m curious as to how you’ve avoided corruption among your own for so long, leading to global upset, but I wouldn’t know if you truly have anyway, since you’re all so secretive about your motives and what you do. I’m the president of a global superpower, and all I know is that I’m supposed to let you run rampant and occasionally have meetings discussing important matters such as Chippy here.” Anton continued on with his rant about ASI, and how he hated it so much, but John simply sat there, not saying anything. He didn’t defend himself, he didn’t respond to anything Anton spat out at him. He let Anton go on for as long as he liked.

        “Despite all my rage, though, it’s incredible how long and how well ASI has handled all of the things it has intervened in. I have no doubt that Chippy is being handled just as well, it’s just frustrating knowing that if anything truly bad does happen, then I’m not even part of the equation.” Chippy’s eyes lit up, was Anton saying that he was fine with him going free?

        “Chippy, I‘ll allow ASI to do whatever they feel is necessary with you. However, if I see any kind of suspicious activity coming from you again, you’ll be spending your life in a Russian prison.” Chippy swallowed hard and smiled. Anton stood up and walked closer towards the group of three. He held out his hand, offering it to Chippy.

        “I trust that I’ll find no problems from you anymore.” Chippy didn’t realize what Anton was doing though, so John took it instead. They proceeded to shake hands and Chippy made sure to take a mental note of what to do next time someone stuck their hand out for him.

        “Hey, you can't just let him get away! I’m tellin’ you, he’s dangerous!” The criminal desperately tried to incriminate Chippy, but his attempts were failing. His own bad past was causing his downfall, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

        “Please send security in to drag this lying scum out of my office, thanks.” Within seconds, security personnel were dragging Jerald out of Anton’s office, and Chippy smirked at him as he left. Jerald stared at him with eyes that could kill a man, but Chippy dismissed it. He wouldn’t be seeing Jerald ever again.

        “You’re all free to leave, I’m certain that you still have much to do.” John nodded his head and left the room, Chippy and Niko followed behind, as they always did. Chippy noticed Anton scowling as he left his office, perhaps he didn’t fully trust him like he said he did. No matter, as long as his hunts for Chippy were ending, he was fine with one person not quite liking him.

        “So, is that that? That’s Russia down?” John showed one of his rare grins after Chippy said this. His level of innocence when it came to more complicated subjects was amusing.

        “Yeah Chippy, we did it.” Niko responded for John, it seemed she was just as excited as Chippy. It was nice to have someone else to keep Chippy and all of his questions entertained.

        The trio continued their victorious walk down the hall, through the lobby, and out the door. While Chippy had a lot of things on his mind, a fourth of his mission was already complete. If he had no further interruptions, then the rest of his little excursion of the world would go nice and quickly. After that, he could sort everything else out that concerned him, specifically where he came from. Even though Chippy wanted to live a normal life, he had to say that he wanted to know his origins were almost as important. He couldn’t just be a random projectile from space, could he?

        “Since we’ve convinced Anton to end all search warrants for Chippy and finished off our first country, I’d say it’s time to celebrate. I know of a decent restaurant nearby with good food. I say we go there and treat ourselves to a job well done, what do you two think?” John was suggesting that they actually did something fun. Chippy was surprised that John didn’t want to instantly start in on the next country, but he wasn’t complaining.

        “That sounds great! I haven’t eaten all day, so I’m super hungry.” Niko was certainly excited about this. In the short time that Chippy had known her, he had discovered that she was quite the connoisseur. She ate tons of food, yet always managed to stay fit. He could only assume that it must be a combination of a fast metabolism along with the exercise from her rigorous job. Running around in a base, fixing things, and training people had to be exhausting after doing it for so long. Chippy had even seen her eat an entire triple cheeseburger once as a snack, he wondered if that would even be too much for him.

        All three of them got into the same car that they had arrived in and left for the restaurant.

        Jerry waited in silence for a response from the mysterious man on the phone. This guy somehow knew exactly what the Hamil Faction was, and that meant he had to know what ASI was. If someone outside of the business knew that, then that would be a massive breach of security, and this guy could become an anomalous subject himself.

        Rather than ask him what he wanted, Jerry had asked the man who he was. This had caused him to go silent, was he scared?

        “…You can refer to me as D, I’ll give you no other details. Now, will you hear my request?” D had a fairly deep voice, but it didn’t sound edited. He had no fear of being found, even by ASI.

        “Go on.” In any other situation, Jerry would immediately order someone to track the call, but with everything else going on, he decided against it.

        “That subject that John’s been parading around with… Chippy, is it?” D knew about John and Chippy, too. Just how much did he know?

        “What about him?” Jerry’s heart was pounding at this point. He was doing something he shouldn’t be, and he knew it.

        “If you can capture Chippy for me, then I’ll provide you with more money than you could ever imagine, in cash; we’re talking twelve digits. I only need Chippy, I don’t want any other subjects you have.” Jerry’s heart sank. The very path he had helped start Chippy on would have to take a complete one-eighty. He’d have to capture Chippy himself for this promised money. He’d have to do the thing he was supposed to protect Chippy against. But… twelve digits? That would be at least a hundred billion dollars.

        “What government are you affiliated with? Only four countries have information about Chippy, you have to be part of one of them.” Jerry tried to at least maintain some form of professionalism. If this audio was ever found, he’d at least sound hesitant. He already knew what he was going to do, though. He had been looking for a miracle for months now, and this was that miracle. D was that miracle.

        “Government? I don’t affiliate myself with any of you people. I merely pull the strings to make things go my way when I see fit. My strings are money; humans are easily corrupted by such an asinine object.” Jerry let those words sink in. It was true about society, how money seemed to run everything. This guy didn’t understand Jerry’s situation, though. Jerry was different, his cause was just, his goals had meaning, he was the exception.

        “Should we meet somewhere? To further discuss our business, I mean.” D chuckled on the other side of the receiver. Jerry just didn’t quite get it.

        “Start by capturing and restraining Chippy. Once you do that, I’ll know. Then, we can meet.” The phone hung up, and Jerry was left in the silence of his room. He was left with the weight of the decision he had made. Jerry was left with the task to capture Chippy. One way or another, he would bring the Hamil Faction back to its original glory.

        Jerry would make everyone who ran the Hamil Faction before him proud.

    Chippy, Niko, and John arrived at the restaurant, but Niko seemed to have something on her mind that was bothering her.

        “Hey Chippy, when we first met, that explosion came from you, right?” Chippy thought back to his fight against Niko, and the explosion that he caused to defend himself. He still hadn’t known how to replicate it, but that was probably for the best.

        “Yeah, I caused it. Why do you ask?” Niko glanced over at John, and it was clear that she was irritated.

        “Has he been telling you to completely stop using your powers?” John sighed in the front seat as he parked the car. His hands slowly came off the wheel and he crossed his arms.

        “Yes, I have, Niko. You know that it’s ASI policy to suppress anything that could cause public outcry.” Niko seemed upset, she definitely didn’t agree with John.

        “John, you know it’s fine for him to do what he wants in private! His life could be so much fun if you weren’t so strict.” It almost seemed as if John had had this argument with Niko before. Chippy decided to sink into the background and let them fight it out, he wasn’t good at arguing.

        “Using them in private will inevitably lead to him using them in public. I’ve seen it before, Niko. The temptation to show off is too great.” Niko rolled her eyes and sat back in her seat. She knew that there was no point in arguing with John, he was too set in on his own ideals. It took him ages just to move off of pure containment practices, too.

        “Chippy, don’t you think you’d be fine using your powers in private? You’re not the kind of person who’d risk getting in trouble, at least you don’t seem like it.” John looked at Chippy through his rearview mirror, and Niko looked at Chippy as well. He didn’t like this.

        “I’m not going to get caught up in either of your arguments, I don’t want to side with anyone. Can’t we just be happy and go celebrate our milestone?” John and Niko both thought about what Chippy said. He was acting more like an adult than either of them, and he hadn’t even been on the planet for a month.

        “You’re right, Chippy. Let’s just go in and have a good time.” John opened the car door and got out, removing himself from the situation.

        “Don’t let him scare you, Chippy. Your powers are a gift, and gifts shouldn’t be tucked away. They should be used.” Niko got out of the car too, then Chippy got out after hesitating for a moment. He had been told that his powers were bad this whole time, and now someone was saying that he should use them? Why couldn’t society just make up its mind?

        The trio, with slightly high tension, entered the restaurant and it was instantly clear that it was a popular place. Commotion could be heard all around, and between the voices talking, the sounds of cooking, and the clattering of eating, there wasn’t a moment of silence. A receptionist spoke to John in a language that Chippy didn’t recognize. It was weird, he knew English when he was created, but Russian was a no-go for him. He wondered why he ended up this way, but that was a question for another time.

After John conversed with the receptionist, they allowed him entry, so Chippy and Niko assumed that they were allowed in, too.

        “John, how do you know their language? It has to be hard to know two languages at the same time.” John snorted at Chippy’s question. This was only the tip of the iceberg.

        “I know most major languages across the world. Having good communication is crucial to any mission I go on.” Chippy marveled at John’s seemingly unending knowledge. How did he have the space in his brain to remember all this stuff?

        “Have a seat and pick out something from the menu, I’ll order it for you two, since neither of you can speak Russian.” Chippy sat down in the booth that John had picked out and looked at the items on the menu based on the pictures that were next to them. It would take too long to read off all the options, so he just looked for something that seemed slightly familiar. He came across a page on the menu that seemed to have food that would be at a restaurant he would be used to.

        Once more, he wasn’t certain why he recognized certain items more than others, but at this point, he had learned to ignore it. He saw some form of pancakes on the list of food items, and since he didn’t have breakfast earlier, he decided to have those.

        “I’ll have those.” John leaned over Chippy’s shoulder to see what he was pointing at, and then nodded his head. Niko showed him something as well, it didn’t take long for either of them to pick what they wanted. John, on the other hand, took his sweet time reading through all of the options available to him.

A waitress asked them for their orders, John gave them to her, and she eventually came back with all of their different foods. Niko ordered some form of a steak and John had ordered some kind of traditional dish that Chippy couldn’t identify.

        “Ah, I love it when they bring out your food fast.” Niko unwrapped her silverware and dug into her meal as quickly as she could. Any and all tension from in the car had subsided once their food came, maybe they were all just hungry and that was making them angry. Regardless of the reason for their anger, Chippy was just happy that everyone else was happy, and that there was now food in front of him.

        “Food can pacify even the most furious of beasts,” John said as picked up his food with his hands. It sort of looked like a bun, but when he bit into it, there was meat inside of it.

        Chippy focused on his own food and decided to take his first bite. They were even generous enough to put whipped cream on it without him even asking for it, this should be delicious.

        It was not delicious.

        “Eugh! I thought these were supposed to be sweet!” Chippy nearly spat out his food in response to the sour flavor that filled his mouth. He hadn’t expected them to taste like this at all.

        “Oh! I’m sorry, Chippy! I completely forgot that they served pancakes here with sour cream on them…” John apologized to Chippy as quickly as he could, and then they all sat there in silence.

        Chippy began to chuckle, then went into a laugh. Sour cream on his pancakes perfectly summed up his time here on Earth. John and Niko joined in laughing as well. Nothing could ever go quite right, could it? He fixed his pancakes by scraping off the sour cream and dumping as much syrup as he could on them. They were good after that, and Chippy enjoyed them just as much as he would any other pancakes.

        The three of them proceeded on with their meal and told each other jokes and stories as they went. The lunch was lighthearted and happy, no more arguments ensued. 

        “So, Chippy, where would you like to go next now that we’re done with Russia? We still have the big three of North America. Since that’s the continent that you landed in, the rest of the countries that have intel are in that area. You still have Canada, the U.S., and Mexico to go. I don’t really care which one we go to next, I don’t schedule anything until we’re in the country.” John took another bite out of his bun after he finished, he seemed to be enjoying it.

        “Uh, Canada, I guess. Its name sounds pretty cool.” John nodded his head and sat back in his seat. He had finished his meal and was now waiting on Chippy and Niko to finish, who were about three fourths of the way done. He began to think about the preparations for Canada, but it wouldn’t be as hard as Russia was. Conveniently, he knew the prime minister of Canada fairly well. In fact, he had actually kept in touch with him much more than he had Anton, so it was fair to assume that he would be much more trustworthy. It would be nice to finally have something that resembled a break.

        Eventually, Chippy and Niko finished their meals, so they all headed out of the restaurant, raring to go for their next mission. John hadn’t taken the car to the restaurant since it was so close by, so they had a short walk ahead of them before they could get back. It was a fairly cold day, so Niko crossed her arms and John put his hands in his pockets. Chippy didn’t seem to have any problem with the temperature, though. He wasn’t doing anything to keep himself warm.

        “Chippy, aren’t you cold?” Chippy glanced at Niko, confused. He thought the temperature felt completely neutral.

        “You don’t think it’s warm right now? It feels fine to me.” Now Niko was confused. It was late winter, at least in Russia, so Chippy should definitely be cold. John eavesdropped in on their conversation, he was interested, too.

        “Warm? Are you kidding? It’s at most twenty degrees right now. There’s no way that you’re not cold. Here, lemme feel.” Niko felt Chippy’s arm and pulled her hand away as if she were hurt.

        “Ow! You’re super hot! That can’t be natural!” Niko waved her hand around after touching Chippy, then looked at it for potential burns.

        “What? Let me feel him.” John felt Chippy’s clothes, rather than his skin, and still couldn’t keep his hand on for long.

        “It feels like you’re about to ignite… Do you think that this may be—” John was cut off when Chippy’s arms suddenly caught flame. It wasn’t an uncontrollable blaze, but the same kind of fire that you would expect to see from a Bunsen burner. His arms up to his elbows glowed red hot as the fire coated them, but his sleeves somehow didn’t catch on fire themselves. He had rolled them up to his shoulders earlier because he wanted more mobility while eating his food, but since they were in such close proximity, they definitely should have caught ablaze just like his arms.

        “Chippy, drop and roll!” John commanded Chippy to put the fire out, but he didn’t feel any pain. Nothing was getting damaged, either. His arms were just incredibly, unnaturally hot. John nervously looked around for anyone that may be seeing what was going on, but they were in a bit of an isolated alleyway, so no one was around.

        “I feel fire—I mean fine. I don’t think I need to put them out so soon, maybe we can discover something new with this.” Niko inched closer to Chippy’s arms, making sure not to harm herself. The flames looked expertly controlled, but she knew that Chippy had no idea what he was doing.

        “Do you think that this may be another one of your powers?” Chippy raised his arm up to his face to examine it closer. He felt no heat there, either.

        “I dunno, I’ve never done anything with flames before…” Chippy backed away from John and Niko and waved his arm around in an attempt to put it out. This failed, however, and he was left with a burning arm.

        “…Except for the blast! I probably made flames and then shot them forward somehow.” John took out a notepad and began writing things down, continuing to look around for anyone that may notice them.

        “Uh, how do I stop this?” John put away his notepad and looked at Chippy from top to bottom.

        “It’s been a while since I’ve dealt with something that can cause fire. Usually, thinking about something cold can help put it out. Why don’t you go ahead and try that?” Chippy followed John’s instructions and began to think about cold things. Ice, snow, the winter… After thinking about these things, Chippy’s flames were put out, just like John said. 

        “Woah, you really know how to deal with everything, huh?” John seemed even more concerned now, though; Niko also had a look of worry. She, along with John, backed away from Chippy. Chippy’s arms felt heavier, too. He looked at them and saw that instead of burning, they were now frozen in solid ice.

        “Woah, hey! That wasn't supposed to happen!” Chippy lifted up his heavy arms and observed them closer. The crystals of ice that contained them reflected his face on their hundreds of different surfaces. It was almost unnerving seeing so many of him, even if he had bigger things to worry about.

        “Well now you’re cold! You’re a special case all right, Chippy.” John’s knowledge of anomalies was challenged with Chippy’s newfound second problem. With the explosions he had made, it only made sense for him to be able to cool the air down, too, but John had hoped that it wouldn’t become its own problem. This was what he got for hoping for things.

        “Maybe try thinking about a neutral object? If hot and cold things don’t work, then just think about something normal.” Niko talked to Chippy from a distance. Who knew how far away his powers could extend to?

        “Something neutral, something neutral…” Chippy focused his thoughts on plants, and all of their daily activities. Now that he thought about it, they didn’t perform many activities. Whatever, they would work.

        Chippy felt his arms begin to lighten and heard semisolid water splash onto the ground. He realized that he had been squinting his eyes while thinking, perhaps in stress. He forced one of his eyes open and saw that while his arms were now wet, they were no longer frozen. The chill of the outdoors finally broke through Chippy’s seemingly magical temperature control, and he himself felt cold. His temperature powers must have fully deactivated.

        “Woah, you’re right, it is cold out here… How do you two survive when it feels like this all the time?” John rolled his eyes and Niko shrugged with a grin. Chippy still had a lot to learn about this world.

        Chippy attempted to step towards the two, but he tripped over some weeds in the ground between the cracks in the cement. Yet again, his clumsiness caused his downfall, quite literally.

        “Ow! Stupid weeds, they shouldn’t have been there…” John and Niko bent down and helped Chippy back up, both cautious to make sure that he wasn't at an extreme temperature again.

        “Geez, Chippy. You’re so uncoordinated that I may just have to contain you regardless of what we do.” John joked around with Chippy, but Chippy couldn’t quite tell if he was serious or not. It was always hard to determine if John was joking with how serious he always was.

        “They really need to keep these alleys more clear…” Niko muttered to herself. Though, when she looked around, the only place with long weeds coming out of the crack was right where Chippy was standing. Wrong place at the wrong time, she supposed. They all began their walk again after John made sure one last time that nobody was around and Chippy had made sure he hadn’t hurt himself in his fall, but this sudden outbreak of new abilities wasn’t leaving anybody’s head.

        “John, why do you think I have these powers?” Such a simple question had bothered Chippy since he started this journey. There were two things he wanted ever since he landed on Earth; a normal life and answers to where he came from. His powers added to the complexity of each of those goals. Even if they were neat and cool to use, sometimes he wished he didn’t have them. They’re the thing that got him into most of his trouble in the first place.

        “I’m not sure, Chippy. It’s my job to try and figure out where you came from, so if there’s any new information, I’ll let you know.” John had lied to Chippy. It wasn’t his job to find out where he came from, only to make sure he wasn’t dangerous. Though, he had to admit, Chippy’s origin intrigued him. If more things could come from the same place that he did, then they could be potential threats. He had told his science team to investigate where Chippy had come from in space, but it was a low priority order. Almost anything else they had to do in just their daily jobs outclassed Chippy’s origin entirely.

After John’s statement, the group was silent until they reached the car. Even once they got in and John was driving them wherever they were going, nobody really talked. Everybody was thinking too much about what had just happened.

        “Now that you know how to nullify them, you have at least some control over your newfound temperature power, right?” Niko broke the silence of the car. It was clear that they were all worried that Chippy may not have control over it. Hopefully he could reassure them.

        “I suppose I could try controlling it, let’s—”

        “Please do not start a fire in a moving vehicle powered by gasoline, thanks.” John cut Chippy off from the front seat and stopped him from doing whatever dumb action he was about to perform. Chippy hadn’t thought of the limitation of the car, he was glad John stopped him before they had a second plane incident.

        The three had some idle chit chat on their way, nothing too important was said, but it was nice to just have a light conversation instead of discussions on Chippy’s origin and fate.

        “Hey John, where are we going?” Chippy didn’t recognize the path that John was taking, they definitely weren’t going back the same way they came.

        “We’re going back to the base. We’ll wait until tomorrow there, it’s already two in the afternoon; we’ll head off to Canada tomorrow. I’m going in a roundabout way to make sure I’m not being followed, I have to be wary at all times, especially in this business.” John went on another one of his long speeches about being careful in ASI, so Chippy mostly tuned him out the rest of the way home. He wasn’t entirely sure he could bear to listen to another one. After a short ride and a shorter walk, they finally made it back to the base with no more trouble.

        In the ASI base itself, it was apparent that Chippy had no idea what to do with his time. He had always been so busy, he didn’t actually know what to do when there was nothing to do.

        “Chippy, what’re you doing?” Niko, who was sitting on the main living room couch, looked over at Chippy, who had been standing near the door since they got there.

        “Nothing, I guess.” Niko chuckled at Chippy’s response. He was always so simple, she liked that about him.

        “Come here, I’ll show you something fun.” Chippy went to Niko as he eyed the device that she held in her hand. It seemed to be a phone, which made Chippy wonder how it could be fun. All he ever saw John do on his phone was reply to emails and other boring work stuff. 

        “Here, look at this.” Niko showed off a game to Chippy that looked pretty strategic. Small blocks fell to the bottom of the screen and Niko had to make rows with them to continue on.

        Niko gave Chippy her phone and allowed him to play the game that she had shown him. After a bit of stressful coaching from Niko on several things he shouldn’t do, he got pretty good at it, and they spent the rest of their day taking turns and seeing how high of scores they could get. John had retreated to his own room to do more boring work things, at least Chippy assumed that was what he was doing. If he was able, then why wouldn’t he relax and play this game?

    The day had come to a close. Niko had started to prepare for bed, and Chippy mimicked the things that she did. He wasn’t entirely sure why he brushed his teeth or got into different clothes for bed, but he assumed that there were good reasons for it.

        John, on the other hand, was still working. Despite him making a company-wide announcement to send emails to Jerry instead of him, a ton of different bases were directing emails with questions to him. People were unreliable, that’s why John had ASI so dependent on his answers. He knew it was a mistake to put so much pressure on just himself, but with things like the Hamil Faction and the threat of simple human error, he would rather just do it himself.

        Still, he’d rather them email Jerry about certain topics. John always marveled at how dumb some of the questions were. Sure, an especially dangerous anomalous subject should always be reported to him, but asking what food should be served in the cafeteria? They could at least do that themselves, right? Eventually, interrupting his diligent flow of responding to idiotic questions, his phone rang. It was Jerry.

        “Speak of the devil, heh.” John answered his phone and listened to what Jerry had to say.

        “It’s John, talk to me.” John awaited a response from Jerry, but he remained eerily silent.

        “Hello? Jerry?” John’s words echoed through the receiver into Jerry’s ear. He was paralyzed, speechless.

        This was the first time he had talked to John since he made his agreement with D. Jerry had been making arrangements for Chippy’s capture, which was more difficult than it seemed. Some part of him deep down wanted to spill everything he had done out to John. Was this the feeling of guilt? Was he guilty for bettering the world? No, that couldn’t be. These things needed to be killed or destroyed, they didn’t belong on earth. If Chippy could earn him the money he needed to fund the Hamil Faction, then it was Chippy that he would capture.

        “Jerry, I swear if you’re prank calling me then I will demote you back down to a C-level employee.” Jerry snapped back to the conversation at hand. He wasn’t going to tell John about any of it. He wouldn’t approve, and if he didn’t approve, then his plan would be ruined. Instead, he decided to tell John about the thing he called him for in the first place. Even if he was going to deceive him, that didn’t mean he couldn’t still help him with other things.

        “Hey John, I wanted to let you know that in my free time, I’ve been researching the special origins of Chippy. That is, where he came from in space.” Jerry knew that the ASI scientists wouldn’t have time to research such a low priority thing, so he had taken it upon himself to collect and go through the data for Chippy’s entry into the planet. If he was so important to him, he may as well know more about him.

        “You have? Well, go on, tell me what you’ve found.” John was slightly taken back by Jerry saying this, it wasn’t like him to be so interested in one subject.

        “Well, it’s more like the lack of what I’ve found. All the satellites that were anywhere near his line of entry didn’t detect anything coming towards Earth until right before Chippy actually entered the atmosphere. He didn’t come from anywhere, John, it was like he just… appeared.” Both Jerry and John were confused by this information, it didn’t make sense for a man to just appear out of nowhere.

        “I even used the research we have from subjects that are capable of teleportation, and it still didn’t apply to Chippy. His entrance didn’t have anything to do with the instant transfer of matter or energy, it was as if the materials that formed his body spontaneously appeared from nothing. He’s a special case, that’s for sure.” John thought about this for a few seconds. Science was definitely not his strong point, but he remembered at least one thing back from his schooling days.

        “Matter cannot be created or destroyed… that much I do remember. Thank you for your research, Jerry. I know you have to be very busy having just taken on the full burden of ASI by yourself, so I find it impressive that you’ve been trying to help in other areas, too. Hopefully we can find out exactly what Chippy is, or where he came from. I trust that you have the ability to do so.” Jerry had to fight the urge to tell John what he had done more and more every time he spoke. John was complimenting him while he was actively trying to get Chippy captured. It was almost too much to bear.

        “Thank you John, I’ll talk to you next time I have an update on anything. Bye.” Jerry hung up his phone before John had the chance to speak, as well as before he broke and told him anything he shouldn’t.

        An email had been sent to Jerry while he was on the phone, but this one wasn’t an everyday work email, this was a confirmation.

        Hello Jerry. This email has been encrypted to appear in your personal email rather than a company account, just for the extra layer of security. We apologize for any trouble it may cause.

        We of the Hamil Faction are excited for this order you have given us, and the information you have provided about D. With this opportunity, ASI can finally return to how it is supposed to be, and all employees can rest well assured that nothing will attempt to harm them, as no anomalous subject will be able to.

        While we hate to leave such a powerful subject unattended, we do understand that the significant boost of funding that we will earn will cause the benefits to far outweigh the risks. We trust in your ability to handle the situation and make the most out of it, descendant.

        We would like to make sure that you want to perform the following actions with subject F-2021, also known as Chippy.

Track down the subject’s location and inform you of wherever he goes.
Use any public or private camera available to pinpoint the subject’s exact location while we wait for a chance to strike.
Capture the subject once John’s view has been obstructed by a wall, door, or other barrier and is at least fifty feet away from him, with no sign of returning for at least five minutes.
Transport the subject to base NV-51 for safekeeping, specifically in maximum-security cell 134.
        Jerry read over this email with increasing anxiety—no—excitement. All of the commands he had issued would directly interfere with what John set up, and it was exactly what he wanted.

        “You only live once, and I want to protect all of those once-lived lives. I have to do it.” Jerry gave a generic response to the email, a simple “yes” would do. He wouldn’t say anything more than he had to.

        “It’ll be over soon. John will have no idea what happened, and I’ll have the money I need.”

* * *

        Chippy laid on the couch for a while before falling asleep. He didn’t have anything happen to him today that was too tiring, so he didn’t pass out instantly like usual. He wasn’t sure how long he had laid there, but there was silence throughout the rest of the living quarters. It had maybe been an hour or so since he first laid down. He could faintly hear the bustle of the rest of the base outside, but the living quarters were almost soundproof. Even the sounds of helicopters were reduced to mere white noise. While he laid by himself, though, he couldn’t help but to think about one thing that had happened to him on that day.

        “Why did my head start hurting?” Chippy questioned why that may have happened to him during his meeting with Anton. The only time he had gotten one before was when he was using his telekinesis, but he hadn’t been using it at that time. It couldn’t just be a random headache, right?

        “No, something definitely happened.” Chippy had been thinking all about his powers up until this point. If he got a headache, it had to be part of his psychic abilities. What psychic abilities had he displayed so far? Telekinesis and…

        “Mental influence…” Chippy dawned upon the realization that he may have subconsciously seen that the meeting with Anton wasn’t going his way and swayed it to go in his way. He had controlled someone to get what he wanted, something they should’ve been able to decide on their own.

        “I’m not any better than the Hamil Faction if that’s what I did.” Chippy then started to have a bit of a crisis. He wondered if he maybe hadn’t been using his psychic powers this whole time on John. He was supposed to be super official and strict, right? Why would he be so lenient around him if he was?

        “Is John really even my friend?” Before Chippy could question his entire life further, a loud noise came from John’s room; It almost sounded like… voices.

        “Is he talking to someone?” Chippy decided to go investigate the source of the noise. He got out of his warm covers and felt the cool air attack his skin in the dead of the night. He found another thing to put on his list of things he disliked once he got to have a normal life. Other things included in that list were governments and Russian pancakes.

        Chippy crept through the base and eventually made it to the door of John’s room, he pressed his ear up against the door and listened closely.

        “John, you know this isn’t right. You can’t just completely suppress him, that’s cruel!” It was Niko who was talking. Was she referring to Chippy?

        “I know it’s not right, Niko. That’s what I’m trying to figure out, how to make it right.” He listened to both of them argue back and forth, and he could determine that they were talking about his powers. Hearing them argue was grating, he hated having his only two friends angry at each other. He had to stop them.

        Chippy slowly pushed open the door and was slightly blinded by the light in the room; his eyes had gotten used to the darkness. Niko and John stopped their arguing and looked at Chippy, neither of them had expected him to burst in.

        “Can you two please stop arguing? If neither of you can agre, then there’s no point in it, right?” Chippy did his best to reason with the two angry people, but that was a harder task than he imagined.

        “Chippy, go back to sleep. This argument doesn’t concern you.” John cold-heartedly tried to push Chippy away, but he wasn’t going to do it.

        “Isn’t it all about me? I think it definitely concerns me if I’m the subject.” John pursed his lips when Chippy said this. He hated it when his own logic was flawed.

        “Chippy, don’t you think it’s unfair that you can’t use your powers, even when nobody’s around? You can’t think it’s right.” Niko gave Chippy her argument as if he hadn’t heard it already. He decided to not respond directly to it.

        “Here’s my two cents on the entire situation. It is entirely unfair that I can’t just casually go around doing pyrokinetic magic tricks for everyone to see, but I’d rather be suppressed than in a cell. Now while I’m in private, on the other hand, I’m sure that I’ll experiment and see what I can do. If nobody sees me, then it can’t hurt them.” Neither John nor Niko liked that solution. They both wanted their way one-hundred percent, not a compromise.

        “I suppose that once I set you free, I’ll have no control over what you do in private. However, I highly recommend that you just don’t use them at all, that’s the most simple solution.” John sat down in an office chair that was next to him and Niko decided that she was satisfied with that response.

        “Don’t let him control your every move, Chippy. I’ve seen what he’s done to other people just like you, putting them behind bars for life just for being odd. He’s only just recently started to actually try and help people go free, so he’s still partially stuck in his old ways.” After saying this, Niko left the room and headed off to her own bed, leaving Chippy and John alone.

        “That Niko… She’s a good pilot, but I can’t help but to admit that she’s a troublemaker when it comes to helping subjects. She wants a world where people are free to use any abilities that they want, but that just isn’t feasible. I should’ve fired her by now, but I just can’t bring myself to fire such a young and promising woman like her.” John stared off into space in the direction that Niko walked away. If he was being honest, he wished society would accept the less dangerous subjects as a whole, but he knew they would freak out at the sight of something different. It was so hard to contain poor, innocent people and creatures for life, but he had no other choice.

        “I’m sorry you had to see that, Chippy. Conflicting ideas are bound to clash if they exist too close by. Go back to bed, we have to get an early start tomorrow.” Chippy decided not to leave, though. He had something else he wanted to discuss with John.

        “John, I think I may be controlling you like I did your soldiers, and that’s why you’ve been being so nice to me.” John, who had already turned around and began working on his computer again, turned back to Chippy; he was slightly taken back about what he said.

        “You think you’re controlling me? How so?” John had dealt with mind-control before, but in previous subjects, mind-controlled people just had blank spots in their memory from when they were controlled. He didn’t have any blank spots, at least none he could remember.

        “I got a headache when we were talking to Anton, and it wasn’t very long after that he started agreeing with you. I think I controlled him to make him let me go free by accident, and it makes me wonder if I’ve been controlling you this whole time to make you more lenient.” John cringed when Chippy said lenient. It made total sense to Chippy, why would someone who was supposed to lead a top-secret organization be so kind to a random subject?

        “Listen, Chippy, have you ever felt a headache around me? Let’s say just when we’re walking somewhere, you don’t just constantly have one, do you?” Chippy shook his head no, causing John to smile.

        “Well, if your head hurt for Anton and not for me, then how would you be controlling me? Not to mention the fact that I haven’t felt controlled this entire time.” Chippy supposed that was true. When he had controlled John’s soldiers back in the crater, he already had a headache from crashing onto Earth, so he guessed that the new headache from controlling people may have been overshadowed by his greater one.

        “There’s a reason I’m lenient around you, Chippy. I just…” John paused and looked Chippy up and down. Chippy bore a strong resemblance to his son, both in looks and personality. John was projecting his son onto Chippy, the son he didn’t have anymore.

        “I don’t want to talk about it, I’m sorry. Just know that you aren’t controlling me, and even if you did control Anton, you know what you were doing then, right? If you know what you’re doing, then you can override it the next time it happens. You can’t have many more powers to discover, so I have a feeling these incidents won’t happen anymore by the time we’re done.” Chippy desperately wanted to know the real reason that John was being so nice, but John really didn’t seem like he wanted to answer.

        “What about Niko? Why does she want me to use my powers so bad? If she works for ASI, then surely she should want them kept secret, right?” John sighed and looked off to the side, this was something he hoped he wouldn’t have to explain.

        “You see, Chippy… genetic mutations are more common than you’d think; that’s how we get most of our subjects, actually. Niko had an older brother who had a mutation sort of like the ones you have. He had the ability to teleport wherever he liked, which definitely made him anomalous in ASI’s eyes.” Chippy never knew Niko had a brother, but he could start to guess where the story was going, and he didn’t like it.

        “We eventually found him and captured him. Taking away Niko’s best friend was really hard on her, she was only around seven at the time and couldn’t understand why he was being taken away.” Chippy had no idea about everything Niko had been through; nobody would ever think it with how happy she acted almost all the time.

        “If ASI took him away, though, then why does Niko work here now? Shouldn’t she hate the place?” John pursed his lips, this was his least favorite part of the story.

        “Instead of hating us for taking him away, she started devising a plan to get to see him again. Sort of an ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ type of thing. She started doing research into ASI using whatever she could, and since she had had direct contact before, it wasn’t near as difficult as it would have been for any normal person. She eventually became a pilot—one of her lifelong dreams—and found out about an ASI base near where she lived.” John paused to take a breath and Chippy couldn’t help but to feel sorry for Niko. While what ASI was for the greater good of the world, that didn’t mean the job never entered gray areas.

        “Usually when we recruit people, we seek out people who are very skilled in their profession and ask them to join us. Niko, however, did a stakeout of the building and I just happened to be leaving. She confronted me about it, told me about her piloting skills and about what had happened to her brother, and I decided to let her in. If she already knew all about us, then there wouldn’t be any harm in her working for us. In fact, it was for the better, that way we didn’t have to bring her to a subject to erase her memory of the scenario.” Chippy listened intently to the story as John told it. Just what was Niko planning on doing, staking out an ASI base and joining?

        “She rose through the ranks pretty quickly in her first year, which was all part of her plan. Eventually, she had the privilege of being able to visit low-threat subjects so long as she had permission. She put in a request for her brother, Arc Reynolds, but there was a problem; her brother was dead.” Chippy sharply inhaled, he hadn’t expected the story to take that turn.

        “How’d he die? Wasn’t he just under containment?” John sighed and continued on.

        “The Hamil Faction isn’t a new thing, they eventually were able to make their way to him and put a bullet in his head before anyone could do anything. The people who did it were caught, but that didn’t bring her brother back.” Chippy couldn’t believe how much a nuisance the Hamil Faction had been. Couldn’t they see that they were killing innocent people?

        “Obviously, once she found out about this, she was devastated. She had worked for years of her life to see her brother again only to find out he was dead. It took her a few months to speak to anyone, but the first person she spoke to about it was me. She told me that she’d continue working for ASI since that was what her career was already, but she almost seemed to demand that I give subjects a chance to leave. I refused, but she gained a large following across ASI of people who believed the same thing. I actually tried to do that back in 2001 already, but…” John trailed off as if he were thinking about something; he also seemed to have that same pained expression on his face from whenever he talked about why he was so comfortable around Chippy.

        “…it didn’t work out. Anyway, with how many people were saying I should do it, I gave it another shot. For about a year now, I’ve been letting subjects that look human go free into the public, because if they can conceal their abilities, then they can live as normal members of society. It’s also been helping out with the Hamil Faction, they only seem to try and kill things locked away. Once we let something go free, it’s like they lose track of them.” Chippy found it difficult to take in everything he was just told. Niko was part of the reason why he was able to go free right now, and her brother was killed by some of the very people she worked for? It must’ve been so hard for her to do that, he couldn’t imagine how she was able to.

        “Is that why you’re so nice to her, too? You feel guilty about what happened?” John nodded in response and then turned back to his laptop.

        “That’s enough painful reminiscing for one night. Go get some sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow.” Chippy, satisfied with what he had learned, left John’s room and went back to his couch. Before he made it back, though, he saw Niko’s door close.

        “Oh, man…” Chippy realized what must’ve happened. He felt bad that she had just relived all of that, but he decided not to bother her.

        He returned to his couch and climbed back under his covers. Hopefully the next arguments and painful pasts he would have to deal with would be a long time from now.

        …More dreams…

        It was strange how Chippy always seemed to have some form of control over his dreams, or at least could tell that they were dreams. Most people wouldn’t realize that they were dreaming until they woke up, which could make the dreams all the more blissful or all the more terrifying. Chippy was mostly indifferent to them, since he could tell that nothing would hurt him. The only ones that ever really scared him were the ones with the dog. Those ones seemed so real… It was as if he could truly be harmed by the horrendous canine.

        This dream didn’t involve a dog, though. At least, it didn’t seem like it would. Chippy was in a base, but not anything like an ASI base. In fact, it was almost more similar to a large house or mansion than a headquarters for anything. The halls extended far and doors were on the sides of each of them. He wanted to look at what was behind them, but he couldn’t seem to move his legs. In fact, it seemed his entire lower body was paralyzed, unable to move. He was stuck, sitting on a couch in the middle of the main room.

        “I wonder what this one’ll be about?” Chippy continued to observe his surroundings, but there was nothing too notable. The only thing that really stood out was a massive S imprinted on the wall to the right of him. He wondered what it was for.

        Suddenly, his legs regained function, but they weren’t his own. Some outside force was pushing them to move against his will.

        “Woah! I guess I’m gonna find out, then.” Chippy remained vigilant as his legs took him to their destination on autopilot. He was on the lookout for anything else that may try to harm him, despite them just being phantoms of his own imagination.

        He slowly paced down a hallway that had a dead-end, but also doors on the side of each wall. On each door, there was a different letter. One door had a Y, one had an M, one had a T, one had an F, one had a Z, and one had a G. Since he was walking right past them, he could reach out and grab onto the handle of one of the doors to open them. He’d have to choose fast, though. His legs would probably just keep walking on past them, and he’d crash into the wall at the end.

        “Y is a good letter, let’s go with that one.” Chippy walked by the first two doors on each side, and then reached out to grab the knob of the Y door. Once he turned the knob and opened the door, his legs automatically turned in a ninety degree angle to be perpendicular with the doorway. Inside, he saw a familiar face.

        “Hey, you’re that red-haired guy from my visions!” Visions, dreams, flashbacks, Chippy used the terms interchangeably at this point. The man was wearing red shorts and a white shirt with no sleeves. They went well together with his hair.

        “Oh? Hi there, Chippy. My name is Ya—” just before the man could finish saying his name, the dream ended. Chippy’s breathing was slightly accelerated as he woke up, he hadn’t expected that to happen. This was the first time that any of them had tried to communicate with him directly. It was also the first time that he saw one of the people with colored hair so clearly. His facial features were clearly defined; he seemed to be Asian, but Chippy couldn’t tell for sure. He hadn’t been on the Earth long enough to determine ethnicities.

        “His name starts with Ya, huh? What are names that start with Ya?” Chippy spent at least another hour randomly putting letters together, thinking of different names that could possibly be formed with the start of Ya. He was hoping that if maybe he came up with the right name, it would ring some kind of bell in his head.

        “Yaasak, Yaringo… Yasu… Yasunari? Yasunari! That’s it, his name is Yasunari! Man, that’s a weird name, but at this point I don’t care!” Chippy realized he was being far too loud while everyone else was asleep, so he quickly quieted himself down.

        “I figured out one of their names! Now, who is he?” Chippy had gotten so excited about figuring out his name that he hadn’t considered who exactly Yasunari was, nor how he somehow knew his name. He wasn’t going to question his seemingly impossible knowledge, though. 

        “Maybe if I look the name up, I can find out more about him.” Chippy got out of his bed once more and crept around the living quarters, looking for John’s laptop. Or any device, for that matter. As long as it had a search engine, he could use it.

        “There you are, you tiny little computer.” Chippy finally came across John’s laptop, which had been left on a table in the kitchen. Since John was using the computer hooked up in his room, he had left his laptop out without care. Chippy was almost blinded when he opened it up, as the brightness had been set to the maximum.

        “Agh, who needs this much light?” Chippy quickly turned the brightness down on the laptop before he permanently lost his vision. The home screen of the laptop had an image of John along with three other people. They were the same three people he had seen in the various pictures in the bases. A woman who looked to be about John’s age, at least in the picture, and two young children. One couldn't have been much older than ten, and the other one looked to be around four. Chippy still wondered how he made time to see them, but that wasn’t what he was here for.

        “A password? Dangit Chippy, think! You’ve seen him put it in a hundred times.” Chippy tried various passwords relating to John in some way in hopes to randomly guess it, but none of them were working. What was it that John typed in every time he got on this thing?

        “J-O-H-N” On the final password attempt that Chippy had before he would be locked out of the laptop, he put John’s own name into the box and it accepted it. He was granted access to all of the features of John’s company device.

        “There we go! Man, that’s a terrible password. Whatever, let’s see who Yasunari is.” Chippy navigated his way through the device and clicked the same buttons that he had seen John click whenever he searched something. There were several different types of browsers on the desktop, but Chippy decided to use the one that John always used.

        “ASI database… It’s amazing that ASI just has a search engine all to themselves. I wonder how much it costs to keep it up?” Chippy typed “Yasunari” into the search bar and was greeted with only one result. He clicked on the link and began to read.

        “Let’s see here… Status: deceased? Why would I be dreaming about a dead guy?” Chippy looked at the gallery section of the page and saw two images. The first one was labeled “REMAINS.” while the second was named “GENETIC REASSEMBLY.” The first image showed a pile of various human bones, all detached from one another. Those couldn’t be his bones, could they?

        “Yep, this is him.” The second image showed an almost exact replica of the man Chippy had seen in his dreams.

        “See also, Minta Alcmene… I recognize that name too! The names of all the colored hair people are on here!” Chippy read off all of the names to himself, and he recognized every single one. 

        “Yasunari Hinote, Minta Alcmene, Tadita Chavos, Flavio Frediano, Ghusun Zainab, and Zeem? What strange names… Then again, Chippy isn’t the most common name either. Wait, if I remembered the name Chippy from somewhere, then where did it come from if it isn’t one of these? Whatever, I’ll figure that out later.” Chippy continued to scroll through Yasunari’s page. He figured it’d give him just as much information as the others.

        “Bunch of physical description stuff, nothing in the capture log… part of the S-Team? What’s that?” After reading through Yasunari’s page, Chippy was left with more questions than answers. Why would he know a dead guy? What was the S-Team? Why did this guy have red hair? None of it made sense. He’d need someone with a greater knowledge of ASI projects and discoveries than him, someone who had at least been there for a few years, but it couldn’t be John. John would be angry to know that Chippy was using his laptop, he needed someone else.

        “Bingo.” Chippy figured out his target, the perfect person to ask was in this base itself; Niko.

        Chippy tiptoed to Niko’s door and slowly opened it. There she was, sleeping on her bed. Chippy had to admit that she looked kind of cute when she was sleeping.

        “That’s not a creepy thought, is it?” Chippy muttered to himself about what he should and shouldn’t think, but then refocused himself on his current task. He bent down right next to Niko’s ear and whispered to her, so as to not startle her.

        “Hey, Niko. I need help with some—” Chippy was suddenly socked in the gut and Niko jumped out of her bed while he was paralyzed. She grabbed his arm and slammed him onto the floor, continuing to hold his arm back. She held his other one down on the ground while somehow also keeping his legs down. Within a matter of seconds, he was completely overpowered.

        “Nobody is authorized in the living quarters without an admin’s direct permission. I highly recommend—wait, Chippy? Is that you?” Chippy groaned in pain as he laid under Niko’s forceful trap. He was still recovering from being punched in the stomach, he didn’t have the ability to try and get out right now.

        “Yeah, it’s me.” Chippy coughed a few times, and then Niko let him get up. She turned on the light in her room, which now revealed a damaged Chippy.

        “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize that it was you. That was an ASI-trained response in case someone tries to hurt you in your sleep, but you probably weren’t trying to hurt me.” Chippy shook his head as he finally was able to focus on things besides the pain in his stomach. Niko was wearing a nightgown that Chippy had seen her wear almost every time she went to sleep, it must have been very comfortable. Maybe he should try it on sometime.

        “Listen, Chippy. If this is about Arc, that’s in the past now.” Before Chippy answered, he listened for any noises outside of the room that may signify John waking up. He didn’t hear anything, so he continued on.

        “I had another dream, but this time I could actually remember the man who was in it. I was hoping you could tell me more about him.” Niko seemed intrigued by this, she loved mysteries, and she loved solving them even better.

        “Oh—oh. Really? Who is it that you remember?” Niko was a little surprised that Chippy hadn’t come to discuss her brother, but she was glad that he didn’t feel the need to bring him up. Chippy proceeded to describe his dream about Yasunari; he told Niko about what he looked like, his other dreams that had involved him, and that he was apparently part of something called the S-Team.

        “The S-team? I remember hearing about them a little over a year ago, it was a cold case that even ASI couldn’t figure out. They found a pile of bones in a remote location in Greece, they weren’t in any order. It was almost like a person put them there.” Chippy already thought that was weird, but Niko still had more to say.

        “What I’ve heard, at least from company stories in the break room, is that our current dating process places the bones at a very old age; even older than the Earth itself. The bones assemble six different full human skeletons, and they looked to be humans that were in their twenties, which wouldn’t make sense given how old they are. The only thing that was found with the skeletons was a highly deteriorated business card-looking item inside the palm of one of their skeletal hands. After a digital restoration, it said S-Team, with each character being a different color, and six names on the back, which they thought were the names of the skeletons. After that, they could never figure out anything else about them, and put them under low-security ASI containment for safekeeping.” Chippy was hoping Niko would help him understand all of those people, but now he was only more confused.

        “So you’re saying that I’m dreaming about a bunch of ancient skeletons? Why would I be doing that?” Chippy sat down on Niko’s bed and tried to make sense of it all, but he couldn’t.

        “Hey, how did you find out about the S-Team anyway? I thought you were just dreaming about the people, not everything related to them.” Chippy had failed to mention that he had used John’s laptop; he supposed he should probably get that out of the way now.

        “Oh, I used John’s laptop to do some research. Since I had one of the names, it led me down this rabbit hole.” A horrified look appeared on Niko’s face, had he done something wrong?

        “You used the ASI database to search? Where’s his laptop?” Niko seemed to be freaking out, so Chippy motioned for her to follow him. She anxiously followed behind and once she finally saw John’s laptop lit up in the night, she was even more frightened than before.

        “Ch—Chippy? The ASI database is only for admins of ASI. Every time you click, there is a one in ten chance that a password box will open up, and if you don’t put in the special password to the database itself, then a super loud alarm will go off!” Chippy wasn’t scared, though. He had already put the password into the computer, he could put it in again.

        “The password is JOHN, we can just put it in again, right?” Niko facepalmed and then looked at Chippy once she removed her hand from her face.

        “It’s a different password, just a bunch of random characters. There’s no way that we’ll guess it!” After Niko’s quick explanation, Chippy himself looked at the computer in fear. What had he done?

        “What do we do? We can’t let that alarm go off!” Chippy had begun to panic. He had definitely already clicked more than ten times, he had been very lucky up to this point.

        “We just have to click the X in the top right and pray that it doesn’t try to bring the box up.” Niko put her finger on the touchpad and slowly dragged the cursor up to the X.

        “I know that John may not be careful with his own password for the laptop, but I’m sure we’ll never figure this one out. Please work…” Niko pressed down on the touchpad and…

         “No!” The password box then popped up in the center of the screen with a sixty second timer under it.

        “There’s no way to know what the password is. Hurry and pretend you’re asleep, he might not think it was us!” As the timer counted down, Niko quickly yet quietly hurried back to her room, then put her covers back over her body to make it look like she had never gotten up. Chippy followed behind her into her room without realizing he was supposed to just get on the couch.

        “What are you doing?!” Niko made a half yell, half whisper sort of noise trying to get her point across to Chippy. There was no time right now to go all the way back out to the couch, there could only be ten or so seconds left on the timer.

        “I don’t know!” Chippy, without thinking, dove under Niko’s bed and hid under there. There were tons of holes in his plan, but he’d just have to hope for the best. After a few more seconds, a blaring alarm came out of John’s laptop, stabbing its unpleasant sound into everyone’s ears. Chippy wondered if it could be heard outside of the living quarters or if the soundproof walls blocked it.

        “What is going on out here?” John slammed open his door and looked around for the source of the irritating noise.

        “Who was using my laptop?” John put in the password and turned the horrible noise off, only to see that someone was looking at a dead case that he had deemed unimportant.

        “Out of all the things they could have researched, why the S-Team?” Two conclusions came to John’s head as to what could have happened. Either an intruder broke in or used his laptop, or the much more likely scenario in which either Chippy or Niko decided to use it.

        “It still doesn’t make sense, why would they care about this guy?” John looked towards the couch that Chippy should have been sleeping on and he wasn’t there, confirming his suspicions. He went to the door leading to Niko’s room and knocked on it; maybe she knew where Chippy went. She opened it up and looked at John with a tired face.

        “Oh, hey John. What was that noise? It was so loud.” John looked over Niko’s shoulder and saw a small part of a foot sticking out from under her bed.

        “It looks like there’s a monster under your bed.” John pushed his way through Niko and grabbed onto Chippy's foot, then dragged him out from under the bed. Chippy slowly stood up in anticipation for what John had to say.

        “So, were you two having a sleepover? That’s nice, I love to see my employees bonding with the subjects.” Chippy knew what was coming, John always played dumb when he was angry.

        “Now, care to explain to me why my laptop was both on and had an alarm going off? Note that we’re also in a high-security living quarters with no windows, a door locked three times, and zero signs of breaking and entering. It sure is a puzzle as to how anyone could possibly even get to the laptop, much less start it up and use it.” John then looked directly into Chippy’s eyes.

        “Or maybe they’re still here, hm?” Chippy returned John’s gaze and looked bravely back at him. Chippy did something he shouldn’t have, but this was important to him. He had to know what was causing these dreams.

        “I’m sorry, John. I’ve been dreaming and having visions about those S-Team people and I wanted to know who they were. One even talked to me in my last dream.” John’s face went from one of irritation to one of surprise. He backed off of Chippy, making him feel less tense.

        “When we first met, I told you to tell me about any other visions after that first one. How many have you had that I haven’t heard from you about?” Chippy took a deep breath and proceeded to tell John about every vision he had had and described them in immense detail. Both John and Niko’s interest never faltered; these stories were very strange. Everything from the S-Team to the dog to the figures had its own unique meaning to try and figure out.

        “These dreams are so weird, they almost seem completely random.” Niko couldn’t figure out what they were supposed to mean, but they had to be connected somehow, right?

        “The S-Team was a mystery all right. All we could figure out about them was related to their DNA, strange DNA at that. It was reconfigured from normal human DNA to give them colored hair and… anomalous… Niko, could you get me my files on the S-Team case, please? Just a copy of the papers will do. I suppose we’re up for the day, since Chippy here decided to wake us all up at six in the morning.” John seemed to cut off one train of thought and start on another. What was he thinking?

        “Oh, and Chippy. If you ever need to do research again, let me know. Your origin is just as interesting to me as it is you, I promise. Just don’t use things without my permission, you could’ve accidentally seen something you shouldn't've” John walked off and let Chippy know that while he was upset about the laptop, he still supported him.

    “Huh? Oh, alright then. Just let me get dressed before I go.” John nodded and brought Chippy out of the room to give Niko her privacy.

        “John, why do you want those files now? I thought you said it was a dead case.” John grinned as he walked into his own room.

        “Not now it isn’t. Go get dressed, we have things to do today.” John shut his door right in front of Chippy, who then shrugged and followed his command. At this point, he had been in ASI living quarters long enough that he knew where the spare clothes for guests were by heart, so he changed into a new outfit.

        “I mean, he never said to wear anything fancy…” Chippy pulled a hoodie out of the closet and put it on. He could experience its wonderful comfort once more.

        After a small idle period. Chippy saw Niko head out into the main portion of the base, likely to get the files John asked for. John himself soon left his own room and guided Chippy out of the base.

        “Where are we going now, John?” John seemed to be ignoring the flying vehicles in the hangar area, so they definitely weren’t taking those.

“When I was setting up to go to Canada, I discovered that all of the helicopters and jets in this base are undergoing maintenance due to an outbreak of a certain subject, namely one that can discharge a lot of electricity into metal. Due to this extremely inconvenient event, we’ll be going to Canada by boat. I’ve set up a small ASI ferry to take us to Canada. We’ll go through the Baltic sea and get out into open waters. Once we’re sure that nobody is following us, we can use our special technology to make the trip go more quickly, and—” 

John started up on another one of his rants, so Chippy tuned him out once more. While Chippy was interested in his own past and figuring out his dreams, he wasn’t interested in boat technology.

        “I got ‘em!” Niko jogged toward John and Chippy with papers in her hand. Chippy hadn’t seen where she came from, but he assumed that it was some sort of nearby file room.

        “My, that was quick! I should have you fetch things for me more often.” John let out one of his rare jokes, but all it got out of Niko was a grin and an eye roll.

        “Like I was saying to Chippy, we’ll be going by boat. Let’s hope that it’s a simple trip.” John was hoping that there wouldn’t be a repeat of their trip to Russia, he had had enough of being stranded on an island to last him a lifetime.

        “By boat? That means I won’t have to drive. Looks like we’ll have to find something to do with our time, huh, Chippy?” Niko caught Chippy off guard with the question, which flustered him.

        “Huh? Oh, yeah!” Chippy gave a generic response without thinking about it much.

        “I have a small project for Chippy to work on once we get out into the open sea, you won’t have to worry about him too much.” John made another small joke, but Chippy wondered what the project was.

        The group of three left the disguised base and took a company car that was parked in the parking lot. John let Niko drive so that he could read through the files. It wouldn’t be a very long trip to get to where they needed to go, so he was hoping he could get through them in the time he had.

        “According to these files, the DNA from the bones had very strange properties. They seemed to be altered from ordinary human DNA in two main ways. First off, each of them had naturally odd-colored hair while they were alive. Secondly, and more importantly, the DNA for certain other parts of the body seemed to be almost amplified in a way. It was as if they were made to do one specific bodily process very, very well. If I had to come up with a word for them, I’d call them superpowers. What interests me is the fact that some of their powers seem to be very similar to yours. Two of them looked like they had extreme control over their endothermic abilities, just like you. Another one’s brain was heavily enhanced to be able to process more, suggesting psychic powers, similar to what you have.” Chippy listened intently to what John had to say, he was finally talking about something interesting.

        “Though, the only powers you have displayed are psychic control and temperature alteration, and there were six bones total. The connection is there, but it isn’t quite strong enough. Perhaps we’ll figure out more later.” John continued to shift through the files to see if he could find anything else helpful, but he couldn’t quite discover anything.

        “What connection could I have with them? If it’s not power, then it has to be something else…” Chippy tried to think of something that could relate him and the S-Team, but he could think of nothing.

        “Maybe you all are actually related? Y’know, like mysterious ancestors or something. ASI isn’t that old, so imagine how many subjects existed freely before it was a thing.” Niko suggested that Chippy was related to them by blood, but John didn’t seem to support this idea.

        “All of their DNA also pointed to them being of very different ethnic backgrounds. There was a Japanese one, a Middle Eastern one, a Native American one, an Italian one, an American one, and a Greek one. With Chippy’s, erm…” John looked back at Chippy, thinking about how to word the rest of his sentence.

        “Generic ethnic makeup, that doesn’t seem to be right, either.” Chippy pursed his lips as he continued to think of possible connections. Why did he know them if he wasn’t even related to them?

        After their crafting of theories, the rest of the car ride was fairly uneventful. It was a peaceful bubble amidst the chaos of Chippy’s life, he liked that. Soon enough, though, they had arrived at a large port. A ship many, many times larger than Chippy awaited them to transport them.

        “Woah, that thing is huge!” Chippy looked up and marveled at the behemoth before him, it was an incredible sight.

        “It’s about a quarter of the size of the Titanic, believe it or not. It’s the perfect size to house the ASI technology that can get us to Canada in just a day or so.” Chippy wanted to be impressed, but he wasn’t entirely sure how impressive either feat was.

        “What’s the Titanic?” John grinned at Chippy’s lack of knowledge in random areas, it was funny to him.

        “That’s a story for another day. Come on, we have a boat to catch.” The trio exited the car and walked towards a long ramp leading up to the massive boat. Chippy was slightly wary while going up the ramp, he was a little scared of the sheer height he was at. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to go high up on thin platforms anymore after this.

        “I’ve never been on such a big boat before, this is amazing! I don’t even have to drive, either!” Niko spun around on the main deck, appreciating and enjoying all of the different senses coming to her right now, even if it was only thirty degrees outside.

        “It doesn’t take much to get her excited, that’s why she’s so good at her job.” John commented on Niko’s spinning, she certainly was easy to impress.

        “John, can Chippy and I explore the boat a little before you start him on this project you’ve been talking about? Please?” John let out a sigh and looked at his watch to check the time.

        “You’ve got ten minutes, then it’s my turn with him,” John said while walking away. He went towards the captain of this ship, who had just left the cabin in the center of it.

        “Come on, Chippy. Let’s see what we can find!” Niko grabbed Chippy by the wrist and pulled him along with her, which he couldn’t say he was too upset about. They went down into the guts of the ship and explored the various different rooms all throughout it. They had access to every room due to it being an ASI ship, so they could even see things like the engine area, which Chippy was curious about.

        “Woah, what’s that glowing blue tube in the middle for?” Chippy took notice of a cyndrillical object in the middle of the engine that glowed a light blue color.

        “That thing’s called a chizon engine. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I do know that it somehow packs a ton of energy, and no matter what ASI has done, we’ve never been able to fully deplete one of its power. I don’t know how it works, but it’s impressive regardless.” Chizon… The term seemed familiar to Chippy, what was it again?

        “Come on, all this engine does is groan and turn, we have more interesting things to do.” Niko left the engine room, and after making one last glance at the giant engine, Chippy left as well.

        After just a little more exploring, Chippy and Niko came across a locked door that they couldn’t get open. They didn’t worry about it too much, and decided to just move on to a supply room. It didn’t have much in it due to this being a small trip, but there was one thing that interested them.

        “Look, Those are totally cliche sailor outfits! Let’s try ‘em on!” Several pairs of sailor outfits were lined up on a coat rack, and since nobody was going to be using them, it was fair game. Chippy left the room so Niko could change by herself, and he chose to just change in the hallway. Being in his underwear didn’t bother him much; hundreds of ASI soldiers saw him naked when he first crashed on Earth, so what harm would one person seeing him in his underwear do?

        After a few minutes, both of them were changed, and they looked exactly like stereotypical sailors. After knocking, Chippy opened the door back up and showed off his new outfit.

        “It fits you so well! Mine’s a little big, but I thought it would be. You could easily be a sailor, Chippy.” Chippy took the compliment happily; he was glad he looked good in this outfit, even if it didn't quite match his profession, which was being an alien hunted by the government.

        “Well, we’ve seen the engine, we’ve tried on sailor outfits, now what?” Niko led the way once more towards their final destination. While the ship was large, it certainly didn’t take terribly long to explore. They had already looked through most of the rooms, which were mostly barren, so what else could she have planned?

        The two of them went up the stairs and back onto the main deck. Niko walked all the way to the very front and leaned over the edge of the guard rail, looking out to the sea in front of them.

        “Isn’t it beautiful? The vastness of the ocean is an incredible sight. Sometimes, I wish I always had a view like this.” Chippy leaned over the rail himself and gazed into the horizon. There was no land in sight, only the sea, sky, and sun. He noticed that there was a very large wake going around the boat, so that special technology John was talking about before must have been active.

        “It does look pretty, if only life could stay this way.” They both stared off into the beauty of nature’s desert of water for a few seconds before either of them finally spoke up again.

    “It’s almost romantic in a way, at sea with only your best friends.” Niko believed that in some strange way, that was an ideal life.

        “Yeah, romantic…” Chippy trailed off.

        “Hey lovebirds, your ten minutes are up. Come on, sailor boy, we have work to do.” John suddenly appeared behind them and interrupted the moment, calling for Chippy to come with him.

        “Lovebirds? What’re you talking about?” Niko turned to John and questioned his wording. This made Chippy’s chest hurt a bit.

        “Nevermind that, just get Chippy over here!” John was at the same stairwell near the middle of the boat that Chippy and Niko had come up from, and didn’t want to waste his time coming over to them.

        “Fine, I’m coming.” Chippy broke himself away from Niko and started going towards John. For whatever reason, he felt slightly bitter.

        “It’s fine, Chippy. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to talk later on. It’s a promise!” Chippy looked back at Niko and smiled, giving her a thumbs up.

Once Chippy caught up to John, he immediately started going down the stairs, so Chippy went once more down into the boat.

        “What do you want, John?” Chippy was slightly irritated with John, why was it that whenever he and Niko were having a good time, John had to ruin it?

        “We’re going to test you for another power. Earlier, I came to the conclusion that your relationship with the S-Team couldn’t be genetic due to you both not having the same powers and your physical appearance, however we never truly have tested you for other powers. You might have more that we don’t even know about, so we’ll be looking for those today.” Chippy’s agitation dissipated after hearing what John had planned; at least it wasn’t completely boring.

        They traveled to the locked door from before and John put in the same key that Chippy had seen him put in the car into the lock from before. It opened up and they had access to the room. So, it was a skeleton key!

        All Chippy saw in the room was a treadmill in the center with wires coming off of it. What did John plan on doing?

        “Go ahead and get on the treadmill, we’re going to get your steps in today.” Chippy stepped onto the treadmill and John poked a few wires here and there into his body. They didn’t hurt, but they weren’t comfortable.

        “I asked them to load this thing onto the boat just before we got here, amazing service, right? Anyway, this isn’t just any treadmill; this thing will go to speeds far higher than any normal human could run at. One of the bones’ DNA seemed to alter the muscular system of the one who it belonged to. That alteration caused the victim to be able to move at insanely high speeds, at least that’s what we believe we uncovered.” John pressed a button on the treadmill, and it began to move at a walking pace. Chippy easily kept up with it, but it seemed to slowly get faster.

        “I want to see just how fast you can get going, and if you can go faster than usual, then your connection with the S-Team will be even stronger.” John watched as Chippy’s speed on the treadmill slowly increased. He didn’t seem to be getting tired, but he hadn’t gone for very long quite yet. After a little while, Chippy began to slow down. The speed had increased to ten miles per hour, and he was becoming exhausted.

        “I see, so maybe you aren’t as speedy as I thought you may be.” John reached for a stop button on the side of the treadmill, but then Chippy had another one of his visions. This one must have happened in just a split second, as it stopped John from pressing the button.

        Chippy was staring right at the blonde-haired member of the S-Team. She was the only one that had hair that could be considered a normal color, but it still looked kind of off. Chippy had no control over his mouth, so he could only think about what was happening. He had learned to differentiate between his visions and dreams. If he had control in any form, it was a dream. If he just watched as events played out, it was a vision.

        Chippy stood before Tadita in a barren area, the only thing that was near them was a straight road. The place looked fairly similar to where they had been biking in his bike dream, he wondered if it may be the same area. Chippy took notice of the worried expression that Tadita was giving him. Now that he had seen her face in real life, it was perfectly clear in his vision instead of being blurry.

        “Do you think we’ll be okay?” Tadita had a worried look on her face, as if something was wrong. Chippy wanted to comfort her, but he couldn’t move.

        “Yeah, we’ll be fine.” Chippy spoke without his brain commanding him to. He looked upwards towards his hair to check which member of the S-Team he was and it turned out he was the one with pink hair, Minta. He still wondered why these visions took place in the first person, especially when it was a different person each time.

        “You always say that, you’re a good friend. Come on, let’s go!” Tadita looked out towards the road and took a deep breath. Suddenly, she blasted off as fast as a jet. Chippy felt his head shake, and then his body began to walk in the direction she took off in.

        The vision ended, and Chippy realized that the treadmill had reached eighteen miles per hour. Somehow, he was now easily keeping up with it.

        “Well, well, well, did you get a second wind?” John pulled his hand away from the stop button and continued to observe Chippy’s speed.

        “You could say something like that.” Chippy realized the vision had awoken something within him, so he accepted it with open arms and continued on with the experiment.

* * *

        Jerry had become increasingly excited as each day passed. The longer his plan was set in place, the more and more likely it became that it would happen. He had no idea when it would happen, but the mystery of when it would was thrilling to him.

        “That money dangling right in front of me is the only thing keeping me going. Taking care of this horrid business will be so much easier once I can just kill off all of the subjects. I might even have time to go on vacation!” Jerry glanced at a mirror in the living quarters he was staying in. He had customized it a little bit since he did most of his work there.

        “Thirty-five and I look fifty… I don’t know how John managed to constantly handle all this stress and somehow look young for sixty. Whatever, I won’t need his age-defying methods for long.” A few minutes after Jerry finished talking to himself, his phone rang, and it was a number he recognized. Could it finally be time?

        “Maybe I should talk about things I want to happen more often.” Jerry joked with himself a little before he picked up the phone, but the call certainly wasn’t the news he was hoping for. In fact, the information he was about to receive would horrify him.

        “Hello there, Jerry. It’s come to our attention that John, Chippy, and one pilot and captain are all on a boat at sea. With this knowledge, we’ve decided to take action ourselves. We’ll ride in on helicopters and capture Chippy, as well as kill everyone else on board. We’ll destroy the boat and make sure no evidence is left behind, so you don’t need to worry at all.” Jerry’s mouth hung open as whoever was on the other side of the receiver said this to him. How could they do something so reckless without even asking him? He was supposed to be the leader!

        “No, no, no. I want you to cancel that mission immediately. We can’t give them any chance of knowing who’s doing this or where to find us. We need to do it when we are entirely secluded from John, that man’s unkillable, I tell you. I don’t even want us to attempt to kill John, there’s no reason to get him involved.” Jerry quickly tried to stop them, he even stumbled over his words a little as he spoke. He couldn’t let them do this, it could ruin everything for him.

“Sorry, boss, but you know that our group is a total democracy. Your vote counts for one-thousand votes, but even then you’ve been massively outweighed by the total group decision, it was almost unanimous. I’ll talk to you once this mission’s over, and we’re much richer than before.” The phone hung up and Jerry was left stunned. In the way the Hamil Faction was set up, there were a few complete, core beliefs that were always followed, such as trying to kill or destroy any anomalous subjects possible. However, it was also a democracy in the sense that everyone had a voice and could vote on important decisions. The leader of the Hamil Faction’s vote counted for ten percent of the total votes for any given decision. They currently had around ten thousand members across the world, so Jerry’s vote counted for one thousand votes. This was mostly for close decisions, but also to give the leader more power in case he truly thought something should be changed.

        “What a flawed system. What do they know? Thinking that they can just go off on a grand mission without even telling me!” Jerry flipped open his laptop and began to work. He had to diligently cover any tracks his underlings made, and find out exactly what they had planned.

        “What’re they planning on—what the?” Jerry checked his laptop for a group email that would tell him what they were doing. Every time a major mission was planned, all of the Hamil Faction would be notified of its exact events. The details of this one surprised him, though. While it was certainly reckless of them to go after them right now, they were very well prepared for anything that would come their way.

        “Four ASI Elimination helicopters, each filled with fifty men each? How’d they get their hands on those? With that kind of artillery, even a dreadnought would go down in minutes… Maybe we do stand a chance, after all. I wish they didn’t kill John though, I didn’t necessarily want any casualties.” Jerry thought about John’s death for a moment, but then pushed the thought out of his head. He didn’t have time to be sad about the death of friends. Right now, he needed to monitor the mission.

        “Let’s see, I’m sure one of them has a helmet cam or something…”

* * *

        “The fastest runner on Earth can go about twenty seven miles per hour, Chippy. Why don’t you take a look at your speed?” Chippy looked down at the number on the treadmill and it read two hundred miles per hour.

        “Woah, that’s a lot more than twenty seven.” John nodded his head.

        “Indeed it is. We now have one more connection between you and the S-Team, which is incredibly intriguing to me. Two hundred is as fast as this thing will go, so your test is over. I won’t bother you with tests for the rest of this trip, you can go back to—”

        “John, we’ve got company! Four helicopters inbound!” The captain of the boat burst into the room, announcing that they were being followed.

    “We’re being followed? What are you talking about? Nobody has any reason to follow this boat. Come on, Chippy, we need to check this out.” The captain led John and Chippy out of the treadmill room and back up onto the main deck. Both of them looked up and saw four helicopters trailing them, but these weren’t just any helicopters.

        “ASI Elimination helicopters? Those things are only used for subjects that are incredibly powerful and violent, why are four of them out at open sea?” John wondered if maybe they had found a subject in the ocean on the same path as them, but the helicopters should have been able to outspeed the boat. Right now, they were moving at the exact same pace.

        “Hey, if you’re not driving, then who is?” Chippy wondered how the captain could steer the ship without being at any kind of wheel.

        “I got your Niko friend to drive for me, she’s pretty handy when it comes to vehicles. I wanted to deliver the news myself, and keep her safe from any potential harm. There’s something off about these helicopters.” Chippy looked up and observed the helicopters himself. Each of them had two turret weapons on each side and they were all very big. They each also had a hatch on the bottom, but Chippy couldn’t tell what was in them.

        “That one’s getting closer, are they going to pass us?” Chippy pointed at the helicopter on the far left, it seemed to be closer than the rest.

        “That one’s… is it descending?” John backed away a few steps as he noticed the helicopter coming downwards. This was by no means ordinary ASI protocol.

        “Everyone… Everyone take cover!” John realized what was happening at the last second. He ran behind a stack of buoys and the sailor and Chippy dove behind a few crates that were on board the ship. The helicopter’s turrets rotated and fired hundreds of bullets right where they were standing. They clinked off the strong metal of the ship, however a few made it through down into the lower levels.

        “We’re being ambushed!” John yelled out the obvious as the helicopters began to circle around the boat, looking for an opening to shoot at those on board.

        “This is bad! Captain, I need you to go and operate any weaponry attached to this ship whatsoever, those weapons are our only chance!” The captain looked at the helicopters beginning to surround the ship, it was now or never. He had to dash towards those devices before it was too late.

        “If I don’t make it, tell my family I love them!” The captain leaped up and ran for the door that led to the cabin, which likely had the controls for any weapon on the ship.

        He stood no chance.

        Two of the helicopters had a clear view of him and they opened fire. His body was filled with holes that nobody could recover from, he died almost instantly without making a sound.

        “No! That was our only chance against these things!” While John knew he probably should’ve mourned the death of the captain, he had seen so much death in his lifetime that he was numb to it now. He calculated that he had just a few seconds before the helicopters had a clear shot on him and Chippy, and yet for the first time in his life, he couldn’t come up with a plan. For the first time, he had nothing he could do. John, the leader of the most hidden, most important, most powerful organization on the Earth, could do nothing.

        “How could I let this happen? I should have been more careful, I shouldn't have taken a boat, I should have known it would be too risky!” John looked over to Chippy in his frantic panic. Never before had he been in such a tight spot.

        “Huh?” John didn’t see Chippy where he had been. Had he searched for cover elsewhere? John looked around the rest of the deck for him, but as he looked, he noticed something. The two helicopters that had begun circling the boat were now turned in a different direction, as if they were looking at something.

        “Don’t kill the subject! We need him alive!” An announcement came from one of the deadly machines, and that’s when John realized what was happening.

        “Chippy’s…” John poked his head about the buoys and saw Chippy floating next to one of the helicopters. He had managed to use his psychic powers on himself to float!

        Chippy flew into one of the helicopters and began throwing men out of the doors. None of them could fire their weapons because they couldn’t risk killing Chippy or each other. They all fell down into their watery fates below.

        “Way to go, Chippy!” With the newfound time he had, John got up and ran towards the cabin to assist Niko in controlling the boat, as well as hopefully find the boat’s weapon system.

        “Knock him out!” Chippy seemed to have a knack for fighting. Only a few men could get to him at once to fight him, and he was able to fairly easily dodge whatever they threw at him.

        No, it wasn’t that he had a natural ability, it was his newfound super speed being put to work. It didn’t only affect his running speed, his entire body operated on a new level now. His reflexes were much faster than ever before.

        “Man, I’m glad I had that test!” Chippy nearly emptied out the helicopter except for a few select men that decided that fighting Chippy wasn’t worth it. They stayed in their seats, surrendering,

        “Go ahead and tell whoever’s driving to leave. If you could get your other driver friends to do that too, that’d be nice.” Chippy leaped out of the helicopter and floated in the air, but then he noticed that there were only two other helicopters in the sky. The third one had landed on the deck itself! Chippy watched as men started spilling out of the helicopter onto the boat, he had to do something before they got to John and Niko. If they did, then he might as well surrender himself, he needed their help.

        “Oh no you don’t!” Chippy flew back down onto the boat and quickly deactivated his psychic power. A slight headache had started up, and now was not the time to deal with one of those.

        “Fire non-lethal shots!” One of the soldiers commanded the others around, and they systematically switched the guns on their belt with the ones in their hands. They must have been guns like the one John used on Chippy when they first met, the kind that made you sleep, but not forever.

        “Hey now! Let’s calm down, we don’t have to be violent!” Chippy jumped around in the air while dodging all of the tranquilizers that were shot at him. He had to constantly monitor the crowd of fifty to make sure that none of them left to capture John and Niko. They all seemed too focused on him, at least for now. None of them responded to his request for peace.

        “How fast is this guy?” One of the soldiers was already out of tranquilizer darts, he had fired them without being careful. Now the only things he had left that wouldn’t kill Chippy were his fists, and there was no way he was getting up close and personal with him, especially with how fast he was.

        “You guys are *huff* persistent!” Chippy realized that the movements he was performing now were far more precise than what he was doing on the treadmill. It was tiring him out much more quickly, he’d have to go on the offensive before he was exhausted.

        “Control the power, don’t let it explode out…” Chippy began to think of hot things in an attempt to activate his temperature control. If he could shoot flames like he had before at the tiger on accident, then he could turn the tide of this fight.

        “Now!” Chippy held his hands out in front of him, and they lit up into flames. It wasn’t the result he expected, but it still worked out.

        “He has pyrokinesis! Keep your distance!” The soldiers backed off of Chippy, now only firing their weapons from a distance instead of trying to get in close.

        “Come out, go!” Chippy kept shoving his hands out in front of him while frantically dodging the shots, trying to make a fireball like he had done with the tiger. He had to get it to happen under his command, not just as a reflex. He had to master this ability.

        Then, like fiery floodgates opening, Chippy’s mental block finally subsided. He found it within himself, somewhere deep inside, to control the heat to his will. A searing-hot blast of flames came from his hands and burned about half of the soldiers. In a panic and ignoring their training, they jumped off the boat into the water below to put themselves out, hoping that just maybe one of the helicopters would pick them back up.

        “Keep shooting! We can’t let him get away!” The remaining half continued shooting their weapons at Chippy, but he had already found his solution for them. With his newfound space on the deck, he quickly ran around with a flaming hand and set the rest of the soldiers on fire. They all followed their comrades and jumped into the water below; all but one.

        One of the men fought through the panic and followed the procedure taught to even children, stop, drop, and roll. Chippy didn’t know this technique, so he thought the man was just crazy.

        “What a weirdo, now let’s see… I can’t let any more helicopters land on the boat, and they don’t want to use lethal force against me either. It seems we’re at a stalemate.” Chippy stood in place looking at the remaining three helicopters. One was already subdued, with all of its men either thrown out to sea or surrendered, and two of them still were in perfect condition.

        While Chippy was thinking, however, the man behind him that he thought was insane quietly got up, pointed his tranquilizer gun, and shot Chippy in the back.

        “Ow! What the?” Chippy looked at the man in back of him who had fired the gun. He was a little burnt, but he was still fine.

        “As the general of this unit, I won’t make the same mistakes as the others!” The general watched triumphantly as Chippy began to tire. He fell to his knees, and remained there for a second.

        “It was only a matter of time before one of us hit you, now come quietly, it’d make this much more simple.”

* * *

        John and Niko scrambled around the cabin, neither of them had been on many ASI boats. Flying vehicles were much simpler, so neither of them knew all of the controls. There had to be at least a hundred different buttons here and there, and the manual they had found explaining all of them had twice as many pages.

        “There should be an entire chapter about weapons! Where is it?” John hurriedly flipped through the pages as if his life depended on it, because, well, it did.

        “That Hamil Faction’s gone too far! It’s way too bold of them to just attack us like this!” Niko couldn’t believe that the cowardly shadow of ASI would come right out into the daylight for them. Why were they acting like this now?

        “I’m ordering a full search after this. Anomalous subjects are on the back burner compared to ASI collapsing in on itself!” John never thought much of the Hamil Faction, he always believed that it was just a small minority that could never cause any true harm; only small, inconvenient actions. He now realized that it was a much more dangerous force than he previously imagined, and that it needed to be stopped.

        Neither of them had been paying attention to Chippy himself, they had both expected that he would be able to distract the helicopters for long enough by himself to buy them time.

        “John, look!” Niko pointed out a large window that showed the outside to the cabin and they saw Chippy on his knees, as if he were submitting to the opposing force.

        “What happened to him?” John complimented Chippy for using his powers when he left, he wasn’t trying to restrain himself, was he? No, that couldn’t be it. What was going on with him?

        John looked around for a split second, then picked up a microphone attached to the control panel. He turned it on, and his announcement rang across the entire ship.

        “Chippy, you have to push on! It’s just one guy, I know you can take one guy! I don’t care what you do, just get him off this—” John cut himself off and dived for cover underneath the panel, Niko did the same. The helicopters saw where he was through the glass and activated their machine guns once more. The glass completely shattered and bullets rained into the room. Luckily, none of them could penetrate through the thick steel of the panel, or else they would be dead.

        “Maybe next time don’t announce our location to heavily armed helicopters that want us dead.” Niko criticized John once the bullets stopped firing, there had to be several thousand in the room after just a few seconds of attack.

        “We’ll talk about what we could have done better later, once we’re not being attacked.” John poked his head just barely above the panel to keep himself hidden, but still so he could see what was going on with Chippy. He had to see how he would get out of this situation.

* * *

        Chippy heard John over the intercom system, but he couldn’t control the chemicals seeping into his bloodstream right now. He had pulled the tranquilizer out of his body, but the damage was done. He felt his eyes slowly closing and the edges of his vision began going black, he was going to fall asleep.

        “Wait a second, that’s not right…” Chippy suddenly felt wide awake, as if nothing had ever hit him. He knew for a fact that tranquilizers shouldn’t wear off that quickly; he had a good taste of one back when John shot him, so why was this one different?

        “Whatever, I’m not complaining!” To the general’s shock, Chippy got up and lunged right at him. He took the tranquilizer out of his hands and the gun off his belt, then made sure he had no more weapons on him before he let him go.

        “I bet John would like me to keep one of you for him to ask questions, he sure loves doing that. Just stay here for a little bit and I’m sure we’ll have time to ask them soon.” Chippy treated the man who just shot him as if he was an average person. His innocence and easy-to-forgive attitude was irritating for the general to even be around.

        “I’ll never let you people get information on the Hamil Faction. I’d rather die than tell you!” The guard took a radio off of his belt as he ran towards the edge of the ship.

        “Permission granted to wound the subject! Keep him alive, but hurt him if you have to!” He jumped off the ship to join his men down in the watery sea. He hoped for someone to save him, but if he had to drown, he would still be happy that he kept the Hamil Faction safe.

        “Well, there he goes.” Chippy looked down below and saw the fifty men he knocked off swimming. He waved at them from up above and they yelled some choice words at him that John had once told him not to repeat.

        “Wait a second, did he say they can wound me?” Chippy looked over to the three helicopters in the air. One of the original four had been completely drained of its men and rested on the boat. Even the pilot had tried to help the battle effort, so that was one helicopter down. Another helicopter had very few men in it, as that was the one Chippy himself had flown into. It still hovered in the air with the other helicopters, even though Chippy had told them to leave. The other two were still completely full with soldiers, meaning there were still about one-hundred for Chippy to conquer. All three of the flying helicopters had the machine guns attached to them rotating, meaning…

        “Woah!” Chippy ran across the boat as all four helicopters began shooting at him. It was as if time had slowed down in his sprint over the deck, he had to think of something before he reached the end of the boat, or else he’d just fall off and the helicopters would shoot him in the water. If he stopped moving, the bullet stream would catch up to him, too. The only reason they hadn’t already was because he was moving so fast due to his newly found super speed. Should he try to fly? It hurt him just after a few seconds of maintaining that mental upward motion, so it would definitely hurt if he tried to do it again. After going through his options with less than a second to think, Chippy decided to fly again so that he at least wouldn’t die. He could then think of some way to stop flying as soon as possible.

        “To the skies!” Chippy jumped off the boat and activated his psychic powers, which he could immediately feel the strain of. It took every ounce of his willpower to keep it going, he’d definitely have to try and increase his stamina when it came to this power.

        “If I rack up enough force, then I can crash one of the helicopters into the other. I bet if all those quick-moving parts collide, then it wouldn’t be good for either of them.” Chippy muttered to himself as he came up with his plan, the pain he was going through meant he couldn’t do much more than focus solely on what he was doing. He pushed himself as far as he could in order to gain as much speed as possible. It seemed that the more he strained his brain, the faster he could make the thing he had floating go. It also seemed that the heavier the object, the harder it was for him to control with mental energy alone, just like it was when he tried to physically lift an object. In this case, he was trying to lift about one hundred and eighty pounds, as well as make it go as fast as he could, which definitely wasn’t easy.

        Regardless of its ease, though, Chippy knew what had to be done. He didn’t have any plan other than brute-forcing his way through, so that would have to do. He was lucky that the helicopters weren’t able to catch their bullets up to him, even if they tried to predict where he would go. He was traveling in such random patterns everywhere around the ship that no average human could predict where he’d go next. This combination of speed and luck was exactly what he needed in order to achieve his victory.

        “Go away, stupid Hamil Faction!” Chippy yelled out as loud as he could on his final mad dash towards the helicopter. His speed had reached about a hundred miles per hour in the short time that he had to gain velocity, and that was enough to achieve his goal.

        “This is gonna hurt!” Chippy braced himself as he smashed into the cold metal. He tried to contain most of the force from the impact in the middle-side area of his back, as that seemed like it would be the area that hurt the least. It was still excruciating to experience the pain, but at least it was all focused in one area.

        “Augh!” Chippy let out a cry of pain as he continued to force himself into the helicopters after his initial impact. He just had to go a little further and the two helicopters would touch each other.

        “Hey, stop pushing us!” The helicopter tried to turn against Chippy’s force, but it was too late. The blades got intertwined and forcefully ripped each other apart, causing the helicopters to get flung away from each other and into the ocean. Unfortunately, the quick, forceful movements of the two helicopters caused Chippy to get flung away himself. He was lucky enough to crash onto the boat, however it worsened his already bad injury. The two helicopters let bubbles out of them as they sank into the depths below. Chippy didn’t know what happened to the men inside, but he hoped they weren’t suffering.

        Chippy coughed a few times as he slowly stood up, trying to get his balance. His back still hurt even then, he felt like he must have damaged something internally. He didn’t have time to focus on his back, though; there was still one helicopter left for him to take down.

        “What’re you going to try?” Chippy’s question definitely couldn’t be heard by anyone but him, but it still seemed like the helicopter’s driver responded regardless. They spoke through an announcement system with a scowl on their face.

        “You have displayed absurd amounts of power that we of the Hamil Faction cannot ignore. We have been requested to capture you by our leader, however it is clear to us, at least to the fifty of us in this vehicle, that you cannot be left alive. Please allow us to neutralize you painlessly and quickly.” The hatch at the bottom of the final helicopter opened and revealed a long, pointed, cyndrillical object. It slowly unloaded out of the bottom of the flying machine, and whatever it was, it seemed menacing.

* * *

        “No… they can’t actually be thinking about doing that, could they?” John peered over the control panel and saw the final remaining helicopter begin to release the missile it was equipped with, but this wasn’t just any missile, this was an absolute last resort ASI missile.

        “They might not get away if they launch it that close! Are they insane?” Niko’s keyword in might was an overstatement, though.

        “Might not get away? Niko, have you ever heard of Big Ivan?” Niko nodded her head, it was one of those searches that you just randomly made out of curiosity. Big Ivan was one of the, if not the strongest nuclear weapon ever created. When it was tested, it could be seen from over six hundred miles away, and glass shattered just under five hundred miles away. It could easily level several cities if it were ever used against someone.

        “Yeah, I’ve heard of it. Why do you ask?” Niko herself peeked above the control panel, it seemed like it was safe now. The helicopter’s driver was too focused on Chippy.

        “Big Ivan is nothing compared to the missile on that helicopter. It’s called an Elimination unit for a reason, and that reason is the destructive, suicidal power it carries. I trust you’ve heard of chizon technology?” Niko nodded her head again, remembering the dumbed-down explanation of chizon that she had given Chippy earlier.

        “Now, I’m no scientist. I use the tools provided by actual scientists to safely and efficiently capture subjects. However, with my knowledge of how bombs work, the strongest ones use hydrogen. The missiles on that chopper use chizon. If it were to set off that explosive, then repercussions of it could be felt around the world. We’re about halfway to Canada from Russia due to the technology on this ship. Iceland would be entirely annihilated, Ireland would be nearly destroyed, the edges of the U.S., Canada, and Greenland would all be reduced to rubble, and the level of water in oceans worldwide would drop around three feet, as the sheer amount of heat that the bomb would produce would instantly evaporate the water, as well as cause it to move so quickly that within a matter of minutes it would penetrate the exosphere and fly off in to space.” Niko stared at John with her mouth hanging open. She had never heard of such destructive power among ASI’s weapons. She was even a helicopter pilot, and had still never imagined that John would have something so horrible prepared.

        “What’s the point in even having something like that? We haven’t ever even had to unleash more than a hundred bullets to neutralize something, so why would we need this?” John had been in ASI for many years more than Niko, and he had seen things that were secrets even among themselves. Some of the horrors he had had to contain were the biggest secrets of ASI that only those with the highest power knew of.

        “There are things that you have not seen, Niko. Things that go far beyond a simple gun’s ability to contain. Have you noticed anything about Chippy?” Niko thought to herself, and then came to an answer.

        “He… he can’t be harmed by bullets anymore.” Niko hadn’t realized that she had been part of a project that could already be considered a high-level threat. She had been thinking of Chippy as another human, but if she thought of him in terms of a subject to be captured, he could be put in some of the highest-level security they had to offer. With both his mysterious origin and incredible power, it was amazing that he would have access to an ASI cafeteria at lunch time for subjects, much less go free entirely.

        “But there are still ways that we could capture or kill him aside from explosives, right? When he was hit by that tranquilizer, it got him down for a little while, even if it didn’t have that much of an effect on him.” John shook his head, it seemed like he disagreed.

        “I have a feeling his resistance to it was due to the nature of his speed ability. It doesn’t just speed up his movements, it speeds up his cognitive abilities, instinctual responses, and above all, his immune system. I’m afraid that even though it may have had an effect on him now, when he gets more used to this power, tranquilizers may no longer have any effect on him.” John watched as the missile entirely escaped the hatch it was in. It was purposely designed to be slow so that it could be retracted if unleashed by accident.

        “The point is, the missiles were created just in case we had a threat that we could not neutralize with anything else. Fortunately, we haven’t had to use them yet for an actual mission, but the Hamil Faction is desperate for solutions right now. Even if they were commanded to get Chippy alive, their beliefs that no subjects should be kept alive, especially powerful ones, are overriding that command.” John looked at the helicopter still on the deck, then back up to the one almost ready to fire.

        “Regardless, our lives are the least of my concern. There are four of those missiles within one hundred feet of each other. If one of them goes off, the rest will. All of the land I already mentioned would be destroyed, but even more of the ocean would vanish. If that much water leaves, then there’ll be a massive disproportion in one spot. The rest of the water around the world will rush to where we are right now and cause untold destruction all around the tides of the Earth.” John suddenly leaped up and spoke into the microphone to make one more announcement.

        “Chippy! If that missile hits this boat, then the entire world will feel its destructive power! I don’t care how you do it, but I need you to gently get that missile in the water! It’ll only explode on contact with a solid object, so sink it in the ocean!” John knew that the missiles doubled as torpedos, and wouldn’t explode in water alone. He had specifically requested for them to perform in such a manner just in case the potential strong subject that needed it was underwater. If they all did go off underwater, the blasts wouldn’t be nearly as strong, and it would be likely that no countries would be harmed.

* * *

        Chippy wearily looked up at the missile attached to the helicopter. His head hurt, his back pained him, and he was overall exhausted. John seemed worried about the rocket, though. He had to push on just a little more and do what John asked of him, he had to put it into the ocean.

        But how would he do it? He didn’t have any more flying capability in him, it would just give him a splitting headache and he wouldn’t get anywhere. If he couldn’t fly to get into the helicopter, then what else could he do to stop the missile?

        “Fire!” The missile detached from its place in the helicopter and fire came out of the back of it. It blasted towards Chippy, who now only had one idea in mind to keep the rocket from hitting the ship, and it definitely wasn’t a good one.

        Chippy reached out in front of him, putting his hands directly towards the explosive rocketing right at him. It was more of an instinct than a plan. Using one’s hands to defend the more sensitive parts of the body was something every human had ingrained in them since birth, and Chippy was no exception. When he moved his right arm up to block it, he felt excruciating pain. He definitely broke something in his back, but he had to fight it. Millions of lives were at stake, his backache couldn’t get in the way of that.

        When the rocket hit him, it had less force than he expected. Despite his pain, he forced himself to use his psychic powers on the missile to hold it back. This combined with the normal strength of him pushing against it gave him just enough power to hold it back without the floor below him giving away. He wasn’t sure how long he could hold it, but he had at least bought himself a few seconds. He began to slide backwards; he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it back for long, so he began to think about everything he loved on Earth. Even in his short time, he had made friends, enemies, and above all, memories. Speaking of memory, he seemed to be getting pulled into another one that he himself hadn’t experienced, but one of S-Team’s.

        “This isn’t a good time…” Chippy muttered just before he was fully placed into the memory. This time, he was in the same place that he was in the last vision. In fact, he was in the exact same spot. However, he was looking through the eyes of Tadita instead of Minta. He saw Minta in front of him on the other side of the road. Was this the same memory through a different viewpoint?

        “Do you think we’ll be okay?” Chippy could feel himself asking the question this time. By this, he knew what came next.

        “Yeah, we’ll be fine.” Minta responded to the question, and then Chippy felt himself turn to the road in front of him; he opened his mouth to say more.

        “You always say that, you’re a good friend. Come on, let’s go.” Chippy inhaled deeply, and then ran off into the distance. He went much faster than he could ever go in the real world. If this was a real memory, then it seemed Tadita’s speed power was much more potent than Chippy’s own.

        This time, however, the memory continued just a little farther. Chippy stopped in his tracks almost instantly, and then looked back to see the small, faint figure of Minta in the distance. She saw her make a small movement, digging her heel into the ground. Then, she launched forward almost as fast as Tadita herself went. She flew just a few feet behind her, and then slammed into the ground, leaving a small crack behind where her fist had hit the pavement.

        “You’re getting better at that,” Chippy could hear himself say.

        “You’re gonna be useless here once I can get going as fast as you, Tadita,” Minta responded.

        “Alright, we’ll see about that. First to get to her wins!” Chippy then felt himself take off once more, and he saw Minta following closely behind with her large leaps. Then, the memory ended, and Chippy was returned to the task at hand.

        “I’m starting to see some connections here. She looked like she was super strong, so is that why…?” Chippy felt the rocket push harder on him, and he was nearly backed against the wall of the ship. He couldn’t let the missile hit anything but his hands, or else him and thousands more would die.

        Unfortunately, it seemed his newly found strength wasn’t enough to hold back the rocket. No matter how hard he pushed, he was too weakened to make any progress, and the missile just kept pushing towards him. This was the end.

        “John! No!” Chippy heard Niko call out to John from up above. John had a determined, focused look on his face as he stuck it out through the window. He had managed to open up a secret hatch on the control panel that gave him control over the ship’s weapons. He discovered a machine gun that was right below the top of the ship, so he pressed a button to release it from its small containment chamber and was ready to unleash its power.

        “Hold it still, Chippy!” John carefully aimed the gun at the missile and quickly tapped the button that allowed it to shoot. The gun released one bullet, which hit the very edge of the rocket, near the fins, and broke into the electronics of the thruster. This single shot disabled the missile and stopped it from pushing Chippy into the wall, allowing him to move once more.

        “It’s still active, Chippy! Drop it into the water and let it sink!” Chippy didn’t have a very good grip on the rocket, so he had to run forward to keep it upright. It was definitely heavier now that there wasn’t anything propelling it, but he could still carry it fairly easily.

        He ran to the very edge of the ship and let the missile drop into the waters below. It sank into the murky depths, never to be seen again.

John then aimed the gun atop the ship at the helicopter, in which the fifty soldiers were too busy marveling at Chippy’s ability to stop a rocket to pay attention to their imminent demise. The gun seemed to switch to a second mode, and a loud, explosive sound could be heard coming from it. A large, metal bullet bursted from it and crashed into the helicopter, which broke most of the machinery inside of it and caused it to fall into the water.

        John and Niko came running from the cabin doors and both made sure that Chippy was okay. It was taking everything in him just to stand; the combination of the massive pain in his back and his pulsating headache, along with just having exerted even more energy to hold back the rocket, had really put a strain on him. He needed rest desperately.

        “This beat up already? You have to get more stamina, Chippy.” John made a joke that Chippy didn’t really find funny at that moment. Niko then slugged John in the shoulder as she put one of Chippy’s arms around her.

        “I don’t think I’ll be fighting four helicopters again any time soon, my stamina is fine.” Chippy coughed, which made his pain worse, but he tried to ignore it to seem tough. Due to his exhaustion, he began to fade in and out of consciousness. He could only hear tidbits of what his friends were saying now.

        “The missile’s still… get him on the…”

        “Won’t it…?”

        “It’ll be… too deep… farther away… hurry!” Chippy finally slipped away and let his tiredness overtake him. He had no idea what happened after that point, so he hoped whatever it was was good.

John had fastened the now-limp Chippy into a seatbelt on the helicopter that had landed on the ship. He had to take extra steps to secure him inside, he wouldn’t want him falling through one of the open doors.

        “The second that missile touches the bottom of the ocean, it’ll blow up. The other two from the helicopters that Chippy sunk will be in the explosion range by that time, but they’ll be too deep to do any harm to actual landmasses. The only thing we need to worry about is getting far enough away so we aren’t hurt by any big waves.” John ran around the side of the helicopter and jumped into the passenger seat. Niko started the vehicle up and began to fly away as soon as she was able. She had never flown this type of helicopter before, but it was easy enough to learn with her previous experience.

        “Should we try and help any of the people that were in the helicopters? A few of them still haven’t sunk yet.” Niko looked down to the few people who were still managing to swim, even with all of their heavy equipment.

        “The moment we start to descend on them again, they’ll do anything in their power to take us down. It’s best to let them meet the fishes.” John didn’t like leaving anyone behind, but he wouldn’t have any use for them again, anyway. They’d just take up ASI cells that could be used for anomalous subjects, and he was sure they’d rather just die than be locked away for however many years longer they would live.

        Niko looked in a mirror and saw the boat sinking into the horizon, abandoned for nobody to ever captain again.

        “Why’d we abandon the boat?” Niko definitely liked driving helicopters more, but it wasn’t like John to waste things.

        “Those missiles will go off before we can properly get the boat going fast again, we had to stop it for that whole mishap to make it easier for Chippy to fight. If we would’ve tried to take it, then the wave caused by the underwater explosion would swallow it, along with us, whole. With this helicopter, we should be able to get far enough away.” Niko furrowed her brow and looked at John.

        “Should?” There was no way that bomb could reach them in the sky from the bottom of the ocean, right?

        “Well, it’s only three of the strongest explosives on Earth. Everything I've said so far is a rough estimate of what it’s capable of, it could do much more or much less, depending on our luck. Regardless of what it does though, this is the safest option. It probably won’t—” Almost comically, a large boom could be heard from behind them. Two more sounded soon after, and within seconds, a giant, tsunami-like wave was formed. It chased in back of them like the all-consuming destructive force it was. The boat was quickly toppled over and sank below the immense, crushing power of the hundreds of tonnes of water.

        “Faster, faster!” John stuck his head out of the helicopter door and watched the rapidly approaching wave.

        “I’m going as fast as I can!” Niko pushed on the controls as hard as she could to gain whatever little speed she could, but it was no use, the wave was too fast. Even if she tried to go upwards, it would slow her down too much, and the water would still bring them down. If they moved to the left or right, it wouldn’t matter. The wave that came from the missile expanded in a circle, nothing was safe from it.

        “Chippy can make the air cold enough to form ice, right? Couldn’t he freeze the wave in back of us if we got close enough?” Niko suggested that they use Chippy once more, but he was beaten up and passed out.

        “I’m willing to try anything!” John climbed into the main seating area of the helicopter and made his way towards Chippy. Seeing the wave get procedurally closer through the two doors at the sides of the helicopter was somehow more menacing while standing.

        “Chippy, wake up! We need your help one more time!” John grabbed onto Chippy’s shoulders and shook him around, trying to wake him up. He saw his eyes barely open for a moment, then shut again.

        “Wake up, you lazy alien! Our lives are on the line!” John reached into his pocket and drew out a small stick of smelling salts. He never had space for anything in his pocket due to how much he stored in them, but he was glad to always be overprepared.

        “Get up!” John snapped the salts below Chippy’s nose and he suddenly sprung awake, as if he hadn’t been asleep at all.

        “Huh? What’s going on? Why aren’t we in a boat?” Chippy quickly checked his surroundings, only to find that he was in one of the very helicopters that he had worked so hard to take down. Before he could question why they were there, he realized that they were being trailed by a giant wave that reached at least a thousand feet into the sky.

        “Woah… How did we get here?” It took Chippy a few seconds to realize the grave situation they were in, as he was still fairly drowsy. He was slurring his words together as he spoke, even the smelling salts weren’t enough to wake him up fully.

        “That doesn’t matter right now. Chippy, I need you to freeze that water just before it hits the helicopter, or else it’ll take us down. Can you do that for me?” Chippy began to feel his headache and back pain start to kick back in, but he could do just one more thing, right? Changing the temperature never seemed to put as much stress on him as any of his other powers, so he could probably fulfill one last request.

        “Alright, I’ll do it.” Chippy slowly got up and grabbed on to a handle right above the door opening. He leaned outside and stuck his hand towards the oncoming wave.

        “That’s great! I’m sure you can figure out the rest!” John left the main area and climbed back into the passenger seat, looking back at Chippy to make sure he didn’t fall out.

        “You think he’ll do it?” Niko saw small drops of water start to fall on the windshield, signaling the wave was close.

        “If he doesn’t, then at least we won’t have any time to worry about the consequences,” John grimly remarked.

        “All I have to do is freeze that water and we’re home free, easy.” Chippy lied to himself to make his task sound easier. In reality, he had never tried to control temperature on such a large scale. He wasn’t entirely sure if he was even capable of it, but he at least had to try.

        When he moved his arm, he felt a sharp pain where he had crashed himself into the helicopter. The pain traveled up his spine and into his head, where it continued to worsen the more he tried to focus. He quickly brought his arm back and instead used it to hang on to the handle. He then stretched out the other, healthier one to take on the wave

        The wave finally was in reach, and was just a few inches away from the helicopter’s tail. Chippy thought about cold things once more to activate his power. He didn’t have to think about such things in order to use it, but it helped him concentrate and focus it into working how he wanted.

        Chippy felt the air around him cool, then he focused all of the cold into his one, reaching hand. He imagined shooting the chill out of his hand in a supernatural bullet that would freeze over whatever it touched. His imagination became reality, and all of the cold air that was gathered together around his body focused into his hand; it then shot out forward into the wave that threatened him. As soon as the icy air hit it, though, only a small portion of the wave turned to ice. He was too weakened to do this, he could only freeze small segments at once.

        “What’s going on back there, Chippy?” John and Niko watched as water began to pour down on the helicopter’s windows, they only had a few seconds at best.

        “My best…” Chippy gathered the cold air again and shot it back out towards the wave. After another small segment froze, he realized that the freezing effect stuck around for a moment in the same spot before dissipating back into the wave. If he couldn’t freeze the whole thing, then he’d have to provide a means of escape.

        “Guys, I’m gonna make a hole at the top of the wave.” Chippy desperately wanted to go back to sleep, and the way he was speaking symbolized it. He knew, however, that if we went back to sleep right now, he wouldn’t be waking back up.

        “He’s going to do what?” Niko looked back at Chippy and saw him aiming up and slightly backwards with his hand, she understood what his plan was. 

        “Niko, you’ve been trained to be precise, so show us!” John encouraged Niko after he realized Chippy’s plan. He could almost guarantee that it wasn’t going to work, but he wasn’t picky for solutions right now.

        “And… Now!” Chippy shot the cold air once more towards the wave and made a small, crystalline, solid part of the wave that the helicopter could burst through. Niko pulled back on the controls and made the helicopter go up as high as it could. Everyone braced for impact as the vehicle crashed through the ice, none of them truly thought that it would work.

        After a few seconds, everyone opened their eyes and saw the wave in front of them, slowly shrinking down and going away from them. They had made it.

        “Great job, guys.” If Chippy was being honest, he anticipated that his freezing wouldn’t work. He was happy that it did, though. He was still exhausted, and sleep was calling to him once more. He sat down in his seat, put on the emergency seatbelt, and rested one more, as if he hadn’t just risked his life. John’s jaw hung open as he looked out the windshield. He had been through many tough situations, but never had he come so close to death in his entire career. Niko's heart was also pounding, she was only 22 and had nearly been swallowed whole by the sea. They had a moment of silence before anyone spoke so that they could take in everything that had just happened

        “He wakes up, saves us all, then goes back to sleep. He certainly is quite the personality.” John took a sigh of relief and finally was able to relax in his seat. Chippy was safe, he was safe, and ASI as a whole was safe.

        “That was… That was something, alright.” Niko’s heart was beating hard as she watched the wave shrink into the horizon. She believed she may have a fear of the ocean from now on.

        “Well, now that that’s over with, where to next?” Niko held a shaky hand over the middle screen in the control area, still rattled about what just happened, but more ready to input coordinates and get over land again.

        “Same place as before, we’re just in the sky now. Go ahead and bring us straight to base 98-D. We aren’t going to need to meet in a special government building this time; the Prime Minister of Canada is much more relaxed than Anton was about this whole situation, he’s allowing us to come right to his house to discuss with him. He’ll end any searches for Chippy the day after the meeting, assuming it goes smoothly.” Niko put the base into the helicopter’s built-in GPS, and then continued forth on their journey to Canada.

        “Do you think Chippy will be okay? He looks pretty beat up.” Niko was worried about Chippy. She had certainly seen subjects in worse condition, but for some reason, seeing Chippy so harmed scared her a little.

        “Now that I think about it, he probably should get some medical attention once we get there; he took a few tough blows during that fight. I’ll request a med-team with a stretcher to be waiting for us when we land, they’ll make sure that Chippy can recover from whatever damage he’s done to himself. I just hope he didn’t do anything permanent.” John noticed that when Chippy was conscious, he seemed to be experiencing pain near his shoulder and his head, so those areas were likely where the damage was focused.

        “I can’t believe they were so bold. An elimination missile just for one subject? We’ve never even fired one of those things before. Why are they so focused on Chippy?” John knew the Hamil Faction and its members were insane, but this made no sense whatsoever. Of all subjects, why Chippy?

        “My best guess is that they’re threatened by how normal he looks, plus how strong he is and how we plan to let him free. He’s definitely the most powerful subject yet that we’re just going to let—” Niko then recalled an event that happened little before she started working at ASI, which she hated to accidentally bring up.

        “Well, I suppose besides, you know.” John crossed his arms and put his head down, he hated this subject.

        “My son was just as strong as Chippy, and I can’t forgive myself for letting him be outside of ASI protection. That’s why I’m making doubly sure that nobody wants to hunt Chippy down, like they did him. Speaking of making sure…” John took his phone out of his pocket, which was now cracked due to him diving on it during the incident with the boat. He dialed in a number and his call was picked up almost immediately.

        “Hello? Yes, I would like the Hamil Faction being destroyed made our top priority above everything else. Yes, I even want you to focus on it above any subjects we may find, send out smaller, leftover units to capture them if anything comes up while we already have people out investigating the Hamil Faction. They’re getting greedy, and it’s time to put other problems aside to deal with them once and for all. Bye.” John hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket.

        “You mean we weren’t trying to get rid of the Hamil Faction before?” Niko assumed that enemies of ASI would always be top priority, so why weren’t they targeting them?

        “We’ve always been so focused on the upkeep of bases and captured subjects, along with finding and capturing those that are at large, we haven’t had time to deal with them. Now, though, I’m going to have to make time. I sent a message to the main distributor of information, and they’ll be able to announce it at every ASI base in the world.” John rarely had to send company-wide messages, and it was usually either a disaster occurring or a special day when he did so. He wished that it was just a special day right now, like Hawaiian shirt day, but no. Instead, it was a threat that was somehow more human yet worse than any subject.

        “I sure hope that they’re able to deal with them soon. If we can get rid of them, then we can focus more on our actual task; capturing subjects, and if they can be freed, free them after talking to them.” It sounded simple in words, but Niko knew that this could sometimes be much more complicated. Chippy was a prime example of this formula becoming far more tedious.

        “I hope so too.” John looked out the window to his right, thinking about his mission, the Hamil Faction, and now, his son.

* * *

        “Attention all ASI employees; Hamil Faction investigations are now to be the primary focus of ASI. Any subjects in need of capturing will have smaller units of soldiers sent after them, as well as remain in capture until the Hamil Faction has been dissipated. We apologize for any trouble this may cause in your average schedule. Thank you, and continue keeping the world safe.” Jerry bit his nails as he listened to the announcement over the intercom. He knew that it wasn’t just the base he was currently in getting the announcement, it was every base across all of ASI.

        “I can’t believe they failed that ambush! It was two-hundred guys versus four, including the sailor! They had missiles that could destroy a country! How could they possibly fail such a simple task?” Jerry stopped biting his nails once he ran out of nails to bite. It was a nervous habit he had developed lately, a sign of the mounting stress on his back.

        “They jumped into the ocean because of a few flames! How am I supposed to capture Chippy if everyone I send after him is completely incompetent? Ugh, how could this get any worse?” Jerry wished he hadn’t asked that question, because right after that, it got even worse. His phone rang again and he immediately recognized the number that was on it, he had committed it to memory. It was D.

        “No, he can’t know about this, right? I could hardly get a head-cam view from one of the soldiers, how could he get one himself?” Jerry glanced around to make sure that he was alone, then picked up the phone.

        “Hello Jerry, I’ve called to check up on you. How’s capturing Chippy going? It’s been a few days since we’ve last spoken. I assume you’ve made progress?” Jerry let out a silent sigh of relief. It was just a coincidence that D had called him.

        “Chippy? We’ve tracked his location and are waiting for an opportunity to capture him without John noticing. It’s just a waiting game right now.” Jerry could hear D lightly chuckle on the other end.

        “Really? I’d hate to see what you would call action if a waiting game is firing off missiles in the Pacific Ocean.” Jerry’s heart dropped, Dude had played dumb to see if Jerry would lie to him. How could he fall for something so simple?

        “Oh, that? I hardly had control over that incident. My men decided that they could get Chippy then and there, but they were wrong. I tried to stop them, but they just went ahead with it.” Jerry rapidly tried to defend himself from D’s judgment. He had to suck up to this guy if he wanted any chance of getting the money he promised him.

        “You don’t have control over your men, you say?” Jerry then realized that he had made himself sound even worse.

        “It’s not that, we just democratically vote for everything, so I don’t always—”

        “I don’t care about how you decide things, Jerry. What I care about is how ASI is really after you and the rest of the Hamil Faction. I myself don’t care what happens to either of the two groups once our deal is through, but for now, I need the Hamil Faction up and running to fulfill my request. You won’t get captured, will you?” Jerry stuttered for a few seconds before he could finally get out one word.

        “No, D. The Hamil Faction will stay strong.” D sighed, as if he were uninterested in the conversation.

        “Good. I worked with a few… characters, one could say. I’ve been betrayed, cheated, failed, and even had a few attempted assassinations against me in my lifetime. I’ll have you know, Jerry, that if any of those things happen to me for working with you, I will make it my utmost duty to expose all of your Hamil Faction shenanigans to ASI, along with our conversations with each other. I believe that should be enough to lock you up for life, and that would likely be a suitable punishment. Don’t worry, though. I think you’ll do just fine. Remember, I need him as soon as possible, so get to it!” D hung up the phone and left Jerry with even more anxiety and fear than what he started with. The chair he sat in rotated from side to side as he nervously thought about what to do next. D was right, Jerry didn’t have good control over his own people. There was nothing he could do about it, though. If he tried to change the rules to give himself absolute control, it would break hundreds of years of tradition ever since the Hamil Faction began. There would almost immediately be an internal uprising, which would lead to either the Hamil Faction being found out, or, perhaps even worse, an unquellable battle among themselves that would make them just as useless. Jerry was between a rock and a hard place, and he didn’t have many escape routes to take. What should he do?

        “I pray that they separate from each other sometime soon, even if it’s just by a few feet, and out of one another’s sights for just a few seconds. All I need is that small window of time to capture Chippy, that’s all I need! Is that too much to ask?” Jerry got up and lifted his chair above his head. He threw it at the wall in frustration, which left a small scratch mark in the yellowish paint that covered the walls of the living quarters.

        “Why can’t he separate from John for just a few seconds? It’s so irritating! John’s never been so chummy with a subject before, so why the single one that I need for myself?” Jerry punched at the wall, but it was reinforced, so his fist didn’t even get close to breaking through it. He retracted his arm in pain, then yelled obscenities out for no one else to hear. He had never been so angry before, and it was all because of John, Chippy, and the stupid ideals of greater ASI that he had gotten like this.

        “I’ll send out another email. Shortening the distance that Chippy needs to be away from John, as well as shortening the time that John needs to have his eyes off of him should hopefully get these stupid soldiers to do something productive.” Jerry picked up the chair that he threw and set it back on the ground. When he attempted to sit down in it, it fell apart, and he fell onto the ground.

        “Perfect.” Jerry angrily got up once more and began to gather the parts of the chair. He remained silent and decided that he would focus on trying to calm down. He had more important things to do than be angry at his situation.

* * *

        It had taken them about six more hours of continuous flying to reach the base they were aiming for, but they finally made it. Chippy had been asleep almost the entire time, which was worrying, but he was still breathing, so they knew he was alive.

        “Landing now, get ready to help Chippy out.” Niko landed the helicopter on a helipad on the roof of the base. It was disguised as a large police station, but there was a massive hatch at the top of the building for flying vehicles to enter and exit from. It was impressive how all of the machinery functioned so well together to efficiently get the vehicles in and out. Niko decided not to take this hatch, though. She wanted Chippy to receive treatment as soon as possible, and that meant not going through the process of getting the helicopter lowered into the building. 

        Three paramedics stood outside of the helicopter on the roof of the building, two of them held a stretcher while the other one stood next to them. As soon as the helicopter finished descending and rested on the ground, the paramedics ran into it and lifted the sleeping Chippy into their stretcher. John and Niko both got out of the helicopter and observed them as they did their job.

        “I hope they take good care of him.” Niko watched as the paramedics entered an elevator, where they typed in a number and showed a card to a scanner, which allowed them to descend to whichever floor they needed.

        “I’m sure they will. Come on, you deserve a break. Oh, could you also please take that sailor suit off? It’s not really appropriate anymore.” John waited a few seconds for the paramedics to go down the floors so he wouldn’t be in the way, then went down the stairs himself. Niko followed behind and wondered what they may have to do to Chippy.

    Niko had been staying in the normal living quarters for ordinary ASI employees for the past week as Chippy was recovering. It wasn’t much more than a bunch of beds, like you would see in army platoon, but at least they were comfortable. She had been doing odd jobs for some extra cash, such as helping the janitors clean and feeding some of the more passive and animal-like subjects. She had taken a liking to a dog that had two mouths, one in the normal spot and one on its chest. The second mouth had horrific teeth and looked like something out of a horror movie, as well as had a second tongue that stretched five feet, but it was one of the more mile-tempered subjects. Aside from the mouth, it was just a normal chocolate lab.

        “Who’s a good boy?” Niko smiled as she crouched and rubbed behind the dog’s ears. It appreciated the attention, which it didn’t get much of. Even a genetic defect like this was considered enough for ASI to capture.

        “I guess you could cause some sort of public outcry? Nah, you’d just be a neat little Internet article, wouldn’t you?” The dog licked Niko with its second tongue and put its head over her shoulder, mimicking a hug.

        “Aw, aren’t you precious?” Niko patted the dog on the back as she took its hug, then stood up and made her way out. The dog laid down on its side in its bed and went to sleep when she left the cell.

        “I wonder how they determine what’s anomalous and what’s not. We have people with dual personalities, and even people with two heads, so why don’t we capture them?” Niko pondered the question as she made her way to her next destination, which was slightly less calming than the two-mouthed dog.

        The doctors said that Chippy had a broken scapula and brain swelling from his fight; it’s amazing that’s all he did with how many men attacked him at once, but it made Niko wonder how long it would take for him to recover. She came upon a metal door with a card reader to the side of it. She put in her B-class card—which gave her access to less dangerous subjects and other unimportant rooms in the base—and it opened. It revealed a larger room that connected to other halls, the hangar, and most importantly, the medbay. She arrived at her destination and was greeted by several different doctors and nurses as she made her way through. The medbay was mostly for soldiers that had been injured during a capture, but subjects occasionally found their ways in as well.

        “Are you here to see Chippy again?” A doctor spoke to Niko from the break room as she walked by.

        “Yeah, why?” Niko responded.

        “Oh, no reason. You just seem to be very interested in him. Is it a special mission or something?” The doctor looked at someone else further in the room that Niko couldn’t see and smiled.

        “You could say something like that.” Niko waved goodbye at the doctor and he waved back. As she left, she could hear light snickering coming from the break room. What would they be laughing about?

        Niko peeked through a door she came upon, which she had memorized to be the room Chippy was resting in. She saw him sitting in a chair, moving his hurt arm around in different ways to stretch it.

        “Hey there, Chippy. Is your recovery going well?” Niko opened the door the rest of the way and Chippy looked up at her, stopping his stretches.

        “Yeah! The doctor said my immune system is super fast, so I’m healing a lot quicker than a normal person. I already got that stupid shoulder sling off, which I guess I was supposed to have for a few weeks. They also said that the part of my skull that he took off from my decompressive, uh, whatever that procedure was called, is fully reattached.” Chippy stood up and stretched his shoulder back, which was still stiff.

        “The only problem now is my arm. I told the doctor about my impact on the helicopter, and he said I definitely shouldn’t hit anything that hard with any part of my body. He also said that I broke it in four different spots, but it’s already almost completely healed.” Niko listened to all of Chippy’s talk about his injuries with interest. It seemed John’s theory was correct about not just Chippy’s physical speed being quicker; all of his bodily functions occurred at a faster pace. His immune system, digestive system, and even his heartbeat were all faster than that of an average human’s.

        “You have so many cool powers, Chippy. You’re so lucky.” Niko imagined what she would do if she had all the abilities Chippy had. She couldn’t even imagine just being at a comfortable temperature at all times no matter what she was wearing, much less being able to hold back a missile.

         “They are cool, but it’s a double-edged sword. While I can run at two-hundred miles per hour, I still can’t run away from not knowing where I came from, or ASI. I wish I was just a normal guy with a normal life, even if that meant I had to lose them.” Chippy wondered what life would be like if no one had seen him crash from space. Would he have been able to blend in with the crowd?

        “Don’t get down on yourself, Chippy. What do you think we’ve been doing this whole time? We’re trying to make it so you can go free, even if we’ve had some bumps along the way. John had Jerry fly in today to discuss the Hamil Faction with him, so they should be coming up with ways to make this whole journey more smooth. In fact, I bet they’re talking right now.” Niko tried to make Chippy feel better, but he was still upset about the entire situation.

        “Jerry, huh? I’ll be honest, he always gave me a sort of uneasy feeling. It’s like he almost didn’t want to be around me.” Chippy remembered Jerry telling him that he would imprison him if it were his decision to make. He was lucky that John was still in power when he landed.

        “Jerry probably doesn’t even care about you, Chippy. I’m sure you’re the least of his worries right now.” Niko knew that Jerry had to be too focused on running ASI and shutting down the Hamil Faction to have time to think about one subject.

* * *

        Jerry’s heart raced as he sat right in front of John. The man who could shut him and his life’s work down was just across the table from him. Chippy was supposed to be the only thing on his mind right now, but because of the incompetence of his underlings, he was in deep trouble. He had to make several bold-faced lies to John to make himself sound trustworthy and keep the Hamil Faction safe, as well as make sure to try and minimally help him so he didn’t seem too suspicious.

        “I’m glad you could fly out here on such short notice, Jerry. I trust you know why you’re here?” Jerry knew exactly what he was here for, and he wished he wasn’t.

        “Yeah, they’ve gotten way too big for their britches. Somebody needs to put a stop to them.” Jerry gave John a half-true answer. While he did believe that they were being too risky with what they were doing, he didn’t want them stopped.

        “I’ve thought of implementing a more invasive system for intercepting communications, such as emails and texts from personal accounts related to ASI. What do you think?” Jerry was mortified by that idea. If John did that, every email he ever sent to other members of the Hamil Faction would be revealed.

        “That would violate the right to privacy of those who are not involved, correct?” Jerry had to come up with something on the spot to dodge the idea.

        “That’s true, but we have the right to violate rights, remember? ASI was formed to be an absolute power that would protect the world.” The right to violate rights was an ideal that scared Jerry more than anything else. If he wasn’t the boss of ASI yet, they could do whatever they wanted to him.

        “I know that, but doing such a thing may cause panic among normal ASI. People wouldn’t act themselves, and some people might even permanently quit. It’s hard enough to get employees, so having a bunch quit on us wouldn’t be good.” John thought about this for a moment and had to agree.

        “That’s true, maybe invading personal lives isn’t the best way to go about this.” John put his hands together and tried to think of more solutions.

        “I’d say bulking up security would be a good thing. Maybe we should try forcing anyone who goes on a mission to have printed permission to use anything. I’ll bet that those people on the Elimination helicopters didn’t have any kind of mission to present to anyone, so that could stop them dead in their tracks, and even catch a few off guard so we could interrogate them.” Jerry knew that certain operatives inside of bases themselves may be more difficult with these restrictions in place, but anything outside of the bases would hardly change.

        “I like that idea. We could also make that printed permission idea apply to cells, instead of the permissions just coming from the keycards. This is why I’m letting you take over for me, Jerry; you can come up with ideas to solve problems right on the spot, something that you need to be able to run this place.” Jerry lightly exhaled the breath he realized he had been holding in, making sure that John couldn’t tell he seemed nervous.

        “Oh, and one other thing. I got a strange call two days ago from a number that I couldn’t seem to track anywhere, he had some pretty interesting information for me.” Jerry felt his heart sink farther than anyone’s heart had ever gone before. Was D going back on their deal?

        “He said that he was related to the Hamil Faction in some way, and that they were trying to do something for him for a large sum of money. He told me that if they fail, then he’ll leak everything he knows about them, including who—you hear this right—their leader is.” Jerry felt no relief when John finished his sentence. This was D’s way of letting him know that he was taking too long, and that he wanted Chippy very soon.

        “Now, having someone outside of ASI knowing about it and the Hamil Faction is a problem in and of itself, but I’m willing to lose focus on him for a bit while I focus on the Hamil Faction. If he’s telling the truth, and we can stop whatever they’re trying to do, then we can get evidence about them and shut them down once and for all.” Jerry resisted the urge to bite his nails and thought something up as a response, he had to say something.

        “That’s very intriguing. I hope they fail so we can finally get some concrete proof about them.” John nodded his head in agreement.

        “Do you think it could have something to do with Chippy? He seems to keep being the target of several of their actions lately. In fact, have we even had another subject targeted since Chippy crashed on earth?” John was catching on too fast. Nothing could stay hidden from this man, he knew and saw everything.

        “It definitely matches up with what they believe, trying to destroy the most powerful subjects they could find; but why would D want him gone as well?” John raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair.

        “How’d you know he called himself D?” Jerry’s heart somehow dropped even further. Had he really just said that? John never said anything about his name, so how was he supposed to know it if he weren’t in on it?

        “The call’s been a hot topic among the higher-ups ever since it happened, I’ve heard about it before now.” If there was one thing Jerry was good at, it was coming up with lies.

        “How come you were just acting like it was new information to you, then?” Jerry quickly brewed up another batch of misinformation to feed John, it was all he had that he could do.

        “I didn’t want to sound rude by saying I knew already, so I went along with it up until now.” John grinned about Jerry’s kindness. If there was one thing he worried about, it was him being too nice. Then, however, another hole in Jerry’s story occurred to him.

        “I don’t remember telling anyone else about that call, that’s why I was just telling you now. How is it that it’s a ‘hot topic,’ but I’ve yet to tell anyone else about it?” Jerry now understood the trouble he was in. He had dug himself into a hole that he could only now dig deeper into.

        Before Jerry could make things worse for himself, a nurse burst into the room. Jerry couldn’t believe his luck; finally, something was going right for him.

        “John! We have a loose subject!” John quickly stood up and rushed out of the room, following the nurse to wherever she planned to bring him.

        “We can talk more later, Jerry. I have to go see what’s going on.” John left the room and left Jerry alone with only his thoughts to accompany him.

        “I’ve got to come up with something better.” Jerry sank into his chair, thinking about what he could have done better in that confrontation, as well as what would have happened if that nurse hadn’t interrupted them.

        “I’ll also have to come up with an excuse to get out of here, there’s no way I can talk to him again.” Jerry stood up and brought a sticky note pad out of his pocket, thinking of false reasons for why he could leave right now.

* * *

        “What subject’s gone loose?” John ran through the hangar, which connected most of the rooms in the base. He hadn’t dealt with an actual subject escaping for a very long time, he was never around when it happened.

        “Subject F-2021 went missing from the medical area around five minutes ago. We don’t know where he’s gone, but all of our cameras are working on looking for him now.” John slowed down a bit upon hearing this. Wasn’t that just…

        “Chippy? F-2021 is Chippy, right?” The nurse nodded. Now John was really confused. Why would Chippy just disappear all of a sudden?

        “I hope he’s okay, he hasn’t seemed like he would abandon us before now.” As John and the nurse ran, John realized that he hadn’t actually been told where he was going.

        “Do we have any idea where he could have gone?” John asked.

        “They said there was a sighting of him in the soldier's living quarters. I’d think he’d be captured if he went to where most of our troops are resting, but he’s supposed to be very powerful, isn’t he?” John shuddered at the thought of Chippy going rouge. If he chose to show off his power, he could level a city. Flight, strength, speed, and temperature control was a deadly combination of abilities for a loose subject to have.

        John finally made his way through the doors of the soldier's living quarters and he felt both relief and anger from what he saw.

        There was a table in the center of the room with at least fifty soldiers gathered around watching what was taking place. Chippy was sitting at the table across from another soldier and was having an arm wrestle with him. While it seemed he was showing off his power, he definitely wasn’t leveling any cities.

        “What are you all doing?” John yelled over the excitement of the crowd who had been sending their strongest out in an attempt to beat Chippy in a show of strength. They quickly hushed and looked at their leader, who they hadn’t expected to be here.

        “That man is a subject! Isn’t it your job to capture him? I don’t think arm wrestling was part of your contract!” As the soldiers let John’s words into their heads, they quickly all turned on Chippy. A few pushed him down onto the ground, then held him down with all their might.

        “Sorry, sir!” John put his hand on his forehead as he struggled to comprehend the idiocy of those who worked for him.

        “No, he’s with me! I was just giving an ex—you know what? Just bring him to me.” The soldiers leaped up and held Chippy by his arms. They placed him in front of John, then quickly retreated.

        “All of you, get back to work!” The soldiers then hurried around trying to find something to do, or a mission to be dispatched on. John struck fear into the hearts of anyone he yelled at, no matter how strong or fearless they were.

        “I see you’ve been making friends, Chippy. Weren’t you supposed to stay in the medbay?” Chippy sheepishly looked up to John. While he was only a few inches taller than him, he seemed to tower over him right now.

        “I got bored in there and decided to look around the rest of the base. You understand, right? My body’s almost in perfect condition now, so I was getting antsy.” John’s expression didn’t change at all while Chippy rambled on, trying to defend himself.

        “Do you want me to just go back to the medbay?” Chippy realized that nothing he was saying was helping his own case, however he had covered up for Niko. In reality, she was the one who recommended that they go and do something rather than just sit in a small room for days on end, so she brought Chippy to the soldier’s living quarters, where people were more than happy to challenge his strength. He wondered where she was now.

        “Please Chippy, don’t run off without me knowing where you went. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” Chippy looked down in shame, he didn’t mean to stress out John; he only wanted to have fun.

        “However, if your body’s in near-perfect condition, then there’s no reason to continue stalling here. I say it’s high time we have a meeting with the prime minister. Where’d Niko go?” John looked around for Niko, but didn’t see her anywhere. Chippy was happy he couldn’t, because if she would have been in the same room, she would have gotten in trouble for not stopping Chippy from his arm wrestling.

        “She’s probably in the hangar messing with helicopters again, she never gets bored of those hunks of metal. Come on, Chippy. We have places to be.” John and Chippy left the soldier’s living quarters and all of the soldiers inside returned to their normal daily activities. They sought out Niko, who did turn out to be in the hangar, and let her know that it was time to head out.

        “Oh, I almost forgot! I was having a meeting with Jerry before somebody decided to arm wrestle with my soldiers. I’m sorry, come along with me so I can wrap things up with him.” John had Niko and Chippy follow him towards the meeting room and Niko gave Chippy a mischievous grin when John turned around. He returned the smile, silently thanking her for getting him out of that hospital room.

        When they reached the living quarters where John had been talking to Jerry, they found that Jerry was missing. All that remained was a sticky note with some writing on it.

        “What’s this?” John picked up the note and read it aloud, slightly adjusting his glasses so he could read it better.

        “Sorry John, I got a call saying that I was needed ASAP in a base in the US. I’ll meet up with you again later when I have a chance.” John furrowed his brow in confusion and frustration. He had more questions that he wanted to ask Jerry, and now he was just gone?

        “What would they need him in the US for? The bases are autonomous for the most part…It must be some kind of subject they’re having trouble with. I’ll look into it later.” John turned around and looked at Chippy and Niko, both of which looked back at him.

        “Alright, enough waiting around. Let’s finish off another quarter of our mission.” John, Niko, and Chippy all returned to the hangar and found a suitable helicopter to bring them the rest of their way to the Prime Minister.

        “Twenty-four Sussex Drive, Niko. That’s where we’ll be heading. I can call in on the way there and set up the meeting. Something tells me that this guy may be a little more friendly and flexible than Anton was.” After a brief check around the helicopter to make sure that the Hamil Faction hadn’t tampered with the vehicle, they got in, had the helicopter moved to the vehicle elevator to move it to the roof, and enjoyed the rest of the ride there.

        It wasn’t a long drive, so it only took a few hours to get to where they were going. However, they did have one interesting conversation on the way there.

        “Hey Chippy, from time to time I’ve been digging around, trying to find whatever I could about the S-Team, and I think I’ve found something fairly interesting about all of them.” John tried to find the simplest terms to put what he had found in, but it remained complicated regardless of how he put it.

        “All of our tests have resulted in them being genetically related to you in some way. Even if their genes and DNA were all wildly different, we can trace some of it in you, mainly in the powers that you possess.” Chippy still wondered how he was related to them. He remembered the tidbit of them being older than the Earth itself, so there had to be some error in the information. Maybe some of the things John had found out weren’t entirely accurate, and there were simpler solutions to be found.

        “Upon further study of the bones, we found DNA in each of them that didn’t match up at all with the rest of it. The DNA was all the same, too. It was as if they each had a small fragment of another person inside of each of them. Even more strangely, we found three separate pieces of genetic information like this, each one different from the last. All in all, there seemed to be fragments of three more people in each of the members of the S-Team. Perhaps the strangest part of all is that from the information that we’ve gathered from your body, you don’t have any of those special hidden genes in you. I’m not sure who these hidden people were, nor how their DNA ended up inside each of the S-Team, but it is more information, and I’ll take whatever new information I can get.” Chippy’s head spun as he tried to make sense of what John had just said. This was all-too-complicated science stuff that he didn’t understand whatsoever.

        “So, you’re saying that I’m related to six people, and those six people have pieces of three more people inside of them, but I don’t have any of those three people in me?” Chippy tried to sum it up in much, much simpler terms.

        “Essentially, yes. Our scientists are busy doing their best to figure out what this all means. I don’t mean to stress you out or give you more to think about, but I just thought you should know.” Chippy was glad that John had more information for him, but he wished he knew what it all meant. Someday, he hoped to know exactly where he came from, and how he was connected to the S-Team. A few minutes passed and Chippy started to think of something else.

        “I have a question, John…” John looked at Chippy in his rearview mirror and waited for him to say something.

        “I… I killed two-hundred men, didn’t I?” Chippy thought back to his time on the boat and how so many of the people had to have drowned at sea. With the bombs going off, they must’ve been so scared.

        “That’s… That’s something I didn’t want to talk about. Yes, you killed two hundred people. It actually made me worry a little about you, how you were strong enough to not only fight off that many, but then hold back a missile after. I took a while to think about it and decided that there wasn’t anything else you could’ve done in that situation, you were in the right to fight them off, no matter what it took.” Chippy couldn’t say he agreed. He had ended so many lives that day, was it really worth it just so he could save himself?

        “You gave them plenty of opportunities to leave, but they kept coming at you. They fired the missile too, and they knew they wouldn’t get away if they did. They weren’t concerned about their lives, so neither should you be.” Niko tried to make Chippy feel better. Although he didn’t mean to hurt anybody, there certainly was quite a bit of carnage.

        “I guess you’re right. I just hope I don’t get into another sticky situation like that, I think this may stick with me for a while.” John nodded and Niko crossed her arms, it certainly was quite a scene looking back; they could see how Chippy would feel bad after doing that.

        “Just know that you only did that to killers who were trying to kill. You had no other option other than to be captured and have them do who-knows-what to you.” Once John said this, Chippy tried to push the thoughts out of his head. He’d rather not think about them and, at least for now, he believed he’d never like to think about them again.

        A few hours later, they arrived at their destination. Chippy thought it was odd for someone who wanted to stay so hidden to take a helicopter wherever he went, but he supposed that efficiency was also important to John.

They landed right outside of the house of the prime minister of Canada, which Chippy thought was weird. If Anton was so scared of Chippy, then how come this guy was letting him come straight to his house?

        “Twenty-four Sussex street…” John stayed silent for a moment as the helicopter finished landing.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been here.” John had been here before? Chippy wondered what for. John looked back at his two friends and realized he had forgotten to dress them both up in suits to make them look nice for the meeting. He sighed and left the vehicle; he supposed that if he were to forget at any of these meetings, he would rather it have been this one.

        “I hear that John’s known the prime minister for a while, that’s why he’s so nice to him whenever they need to meet up. This should be the easiest meeting, Chippy.” Chippy was relieved to hear Niko say this. He needed something to be easy for once.

        John knocked on the door and a fairly young man opened it up for them. He had black hair and a trimmed beard, blue eyes, and looked to be in his mid-thirties. Overall, he seemed to be a pretty nice guy by first appearance.

        “John! It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you. I see you brought some friends as well. Please, come in!” The Minister kindly invited John, Chippy, and Niko all into his house. He both acted nice and looked the part, so why was he having people actively search for Chippy across the world?

        “John already knows me, but I’m assuming neither of you do. My name is Lucas, it’s a pleasure to meet both of you.” Lucas offered his hand to Chippy, but this wasn’t a gesture he had seen before. It was another one of those things in his brain that he should know, but for some reason didn’t.

        “It’s nice to meet you, too. I hear you and John go back quite far?” Niko accepted Lucas’ handshake instead of Chippy. Chippy took a mental note on what to do for next time someone gave him their hand. Lucas took a second to shake off the confusion of Niko taking his hand instead, then responded.

        “Oh, yes. We were both childhood friends for a while. John was here in Canada while his father was on a mission for that company… What do you call it again? ASI?” John nodded his head and Lucas continued on.

        “We both met up with each other every once in a while whenever we were nearby. Apparently there were some troublemakers that he had to keep checking up on scattered throughout the bases in Canada.” John grinned at the old childhood memories and Lucas let out a light chuckle.

        “I remember how angry your dad always was about those five.” John’s grin turned into a smile as he remembered how his dad’s misfortune led to his playtime.

        “Chris, Alaska, Cole, Austin, and Thyme. I still remember all of their names to this day.” Chippy and Niko stood by as the two relived their childhoods. They didn’t want to interrupt the moment.

        “That’s enough of the past, we’re here to discuss the present, right? Come on, let’s sit down.” Lucas led the three to his living room and allowed them all to sit on a comfortable couch. The atmosphere here was much nicer than it was in Russia. Chippy actually felt welcome for once.

        “Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Yes, Chippy, I have my army actively searching for any sign of you, and anyone in this country is allowed to make a citizen’s arrest if they see you.” Chippy didn’t like the start of this conversation, but at least the guy was nice.

        “Now, I know about ASI more than anyone else outside of the organization, as apparent by John and I’s history. However, all I know is that they take odd or strange things or people in, and then society rarely ever sees them again. I also know that they do it very well. I’m assuming you’re one of those strange people that ASI has taken in?” Chippy nodded his head and confirmed Lucas’ suspicions.

        “I wholeheartedly trust in ASI that they will make good choices as to what happens to you. However, many of my advisors and other government officials don’t know a thing about ASI, aside from if they see a certain badge, then they let whoever has it see me. A Canadian official who was at the site of your crash took a video and sent it to me, and I naturally had to show it to the rest of the officials.” As Lucas continued his explanation, the three of them began to see what was going on.

        “So when they saw it, since people don’t like aliens, they started making sure that if Chippy ever came into Canadian territory, he would be captured.” Lucas nodded as Niko finished the explanation for him.

        “As much as I didn’t want to do it, I had to go along with what they wanted, or else I risked the trust of them and my people. After this meeting with you, I can cancel all of the searches and warrants against you. It’s just a whole, slow, annoying system where they’ll only ever move on once I’ve actually met with you. You know, the original ASI document?” John nodded his head at the mention of the document.

        “What’s that?” Chippy had never heard of such a thing before.

        “It’s a very old paper that was written when ASI was first founded. It shows the agreement of the world superpowers on what privileges ASI and all of its employees have, as well as how governments almost always have to let us take over in any anomalous situation. However, they have the right to do whatever they want with the situation until the leader of ASI himself meets up with the government’s leader. Once they see me, it’s very hard for them to continue holding any power. Anton was trying to do that, but he didn’t have any good reasons for us not to hold on to you.” John explained the document to Chippy, who thought of it like special rules for ASI. He wondered what other limitations the secret organization had.

        “Why’d we lie to him about my powers—” Chippy cut himself off when he realized he was still in front of Lucas. He had just revealed his abilities to him.

“It’s alright, Chippy. I know that John wouldn’t help any normal person. I assumed you had some sort of power that other people don’t.” Chippy breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad Lucas was cool with him being different.

        “So, now that we’ve met with you, and you don’t really want to hunt for Chippy anyway, is that it?” Niko was slightly surprised that it could be this easy after the pain in the butt that Anton was.

        “Yeah, I’m sorry that you had to come all the way out here to meet with me for something we really didn’t need to meet about, but it’s over now. Actually, Chippy, why don’t you show me those powers you talked about? I’m curious to see what you’re hiding away.” Chippy looked at John and Niko, wondering if it was okay to use his powers blatantly in front of someone outside of ASI.

        “It’s okay, you can go ahead and show him. Just don’t show anyone else.” John knew that nothing bad would happen here, Lucas was his friend. Even if Chippy started a house fire or something, he’d still forgive him. Chippy stood up with a slight nervous excitement. Just being able to show what he could do was a rare occurrence for him, especially when it was around other people.

        “Alright, watch this,” Chippy’s hand burst into flame. Lucas looked at it with a keen interest. He had always been interested in people that could do things that normal people couldn’t, but this was in a league of its own.

        “That’s incredible! So, you can just control fire on command? How do you not get burned?” Chippy wasn’t done yet. He proceeded to freeze his hand as soon as he put the fire out, then he levitated in the air, each making Lucas more and more impressed.

        “I can also run really fast and lift heavy things easily. John says my immune system is super fast, but it took a week for my broken bone to heal, so I think he’s just exaggerating.” John rolled his eyes with a grin as he listened to Chippy’s basic explanations for each of his abilities, as well as how he made them sound like they weren’t much,

        “Chippy, the injury you had usually heals in six weeks at its fastest. Your immune system is much faster than normal.” John told Lucas more than Chippy so that he could get an idea of what he was dealing with.

        “You’re like a real life superhero, huh? Well, regardless of what you can do, that doesn’t change my decision. I was going to let John have you from the start of all this, and I’ll still allow it. All searches for you allowed for citizens of Canada, as well as those ordered for Canadian soldiers outside of the country, will be terminated. Congratulations, Chippy, you’re one step closer to a normal life.” Lucas stood up and offered his hand to Chippy once more, which he this time took and shook without hesitation.

        “John, would you mind if we talked alone for a little while? I don’t have anything against either of them, it’s just that we rarely get to talk to each other.”

        “Sure. Chippy, Niko, go stand outside for a little while. Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right out.” Chippy and Niko understood John and Lucas wanting to speak alone. With both of them being so busy all the time, it was a miracle they were still friends, so they wanted to give them as much time as they needed. They both stood up and left for the door to give them their space.

        “Alright then. See you later, Lucas!” Niko spoke for both of them as they left the house.

        “See you later, eh?” Lucas waved at both of them as they shut the door behind them.

        “It was inevitable, eh?” John made fun of Lucas’ speech tic that many Canadians seemed to share.

        “I had to do it at least once, eh?” John and Lucas laughed together, it was nice to have a lighthearted conversation with each other once in a while.

Chippy and Niko left the porch and walked towards the helicopter. It was locked, but they could still both lean on it as they waited for John.

        “Now you only have the US and Mexico left to deal with. Hopefully they both go as easily as this one did.” Niko took a deep breath as she leaned against the cool metal of the car. It was winter, so it was fairly cold outside. She was just glad it wasn’t snowing, that way she didn’t have to be cold and wet.

        “Do you have any plans for once you go free? You’ll have to get a job like any other person and support yourself. I think ASI can give you a fake high school diploma to give you a head start, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get a job.” Niko would have kept talking about Chippy’s future, but she saw something odd. In a large bush in the yard of the house, she spotted a person. They didn’t look homeless or anything, in fact, they almost looked like an ASI soldier. His head was semi-deep in the bush, but far out enough to see in front of him.

        “What are you doing there? We don’t need any guards at this meeting. Did John call you here?” The man in the bush’s eyes turned wide. He probably didn’t want to be discovered by a normal person, but why would it matter if he was seen by the people who summoned him?

        The soldier didn’t say a word before he shot something at Chippy. Because he wasn't expecting it, he couldn’t dodge it. When it hit his leg, he immediately felt weak.

        “What the?” Niko was shot as well. She tried to remain upright, but whatever they were using, they were incredibly powerful tranquilizers. The man emerged from the bush, as well as four more that occupied the same plant behind him. Niko and Chippy were already too tired to speak, all they could do was hobble around and try to stay awake.

        “You used the elephant tranquilizer on the strong one, right?” One of the soldiers kept his distance from Chippy, she wanted to make sure that he was harmless.

        “Yeah, I used the normal one on the pilot. Hurry up, before John comes back.” Chippy felt himself lifted up by two of the soldiers and watched with tired eyes as they lifted Niko up as well. Soon after, he fell asleep.

    Jerry had refreshed his screen at least fifty times before he finally accepted what was happening. In his inbox, there was an email titled “Chippy Captured.” He couldn’t believe that things were finally going his way. If Chippy was captured, then all he had left to do was let D come to him and take him away, then all of that promised money would be his.

        He couldn’t believe that They actually got a hold of him, but that’s why he loved his soldiers, they were so bold. Just a few days back they had failed at capturing him, and now they were right back at it. They pulled themselves together and finally made him proud. Jerry quickly dialed in D’s number, this was the first time that he was the one calling. He had to let him know to get to base NV-51 quickly.

        “If you don’t have something important to say, I don’t want to hear it.” D always seemed semi-hateful in his speech, as if Jerry wasn’t worth his time. Jerry knew he was well worth D’s time though, he would achieve far more than D could ever imagine. He was merely a stepping stone in Jerry’s path towards purifying the world of anomalous freaks.

        “I need you to come to base NV-51, Chippy’s going to be there in less than a day.” D remained silent for a moment after Jerry said this, thinking about his next move.

        “What is base NV-51? Do you think I know about all of your stupid code names?” Jerry had just assumed D would know what it was, since he knew so many other things about ASI.

        “I thought it would be obvious. Nevada fifty-one, Area Fifty-one.” D let out a light chuckle on the receiver, what did he find funny?

        “I should have known that any long-standing mystery is under your control. I’ll be there in exactly twelve hours. If Chippy isn’t there for me to take, I will be very, very upset.” D hung up the phone and Jerry sprung up out of his seat with a newfound motivation. He was already at the base right now, he had been waiting here the entire time; the only time he had left was during his meeting with John, just a few hours ago. Area Fifty-one was the Hamil Faction’s biggest achievement. It had been completely taken over by them, and was a safe haven for any member of the society. It was disguised as an ordinary military base, which made it suspicious to members of average society, but he didn’t mind. So long as he had at least one ASI base for himself and all of the Hamil Faction’s operations, he was happy.

        “I’d better make preparations for them, I wouldn’t want them slipping out of my fist again.” Jerry left his living quarters and began firing orders off to everyone in the base. Everything had to be perfect, both for Chippy and D.

Jerry had to wonder, though. What exactly was D planning on doing with Chippy? If Jerry planned on killing him anyway, then why did D want him so bad?

        “He’s not going to experiment on him, is he?” While Jerry killed subjects, he was at least humane while doing so. A quick shot, whether from a needle or a gun, was usually all he did. He hated to imagine prolonged suffering for anyone.

        “I’m sure he has better reasons. I’ll just do what he says and achieve my goal.” Jerry was set in stone about what he was going to do, but having got this far, something just felt off, in a way.

* * *

        Chippy and Niko woke up flying high in the sky, but they weren’t where they were supposed to be. They were in an airplane, flying somewhere that they didn’t know. Both of them had been thoroughly restrained with rope as well as handcuffs. Chippy’s handcuffs seemed to use some sort of advanced technology, as he couldn’t muster up the strength to use any of his powers, nor could he break through them. It felt like a natural part of him was gone, like an arm or a leg.

        “Hey, be careful with those things. They’re expensive to make.” A soldier with a gun sat right across from him and Niko. He noticed Chippy trying to break through the cuffs, so he put a stop to it. Chippy tried to argue, but his mouth had been stuffed with a rag that he couldn’t seem to spit out, so all that came out were angry noises.

        “You two sure are slippery. Between lying to the pilot, manipulating the powerless trials, and the full-on attack of that boat, I can’t believe that this is how we finally got a hold of you. I can only imagine what John’s thinking right now.” The soldier gave an unsettling grin to the two captives. He had been a part of the Hamil Faction for fifteen years now and he had watched its progressive downfall. He had become excited when he heard that D would be funding them if they could capture just one subject, even if it was one of ASI’s strongest subjects in history. Now he was on the plane, guarding the several hundred million, no, billion dollar prize. He didn’t know how D had this money, but he didn’t care.

        “Eh uh oh!” Niko tried to demand their freedom, but she couldn’t even make full words.

        “We’re just a few hours away from our destination now. If I were you, I’d be hoping that whatever happens, it doesn’t hurt.” Chippy and Niko looked angrily at the soldier, frustrated that neither of them could do anything about their situation. The best either of them could do was stand up and attempt to harm the man watching them, but that wouldn’t work. The only methods they had of harming him wouldn’t do much damage, and he had a gun on his lap that he could use at any time.

        Chippy’s mind began to wander during the trip. Since he couldn’t do anything else, he had a lot of time to think. He went back to his usual questions about the world and himself. Who were the members of the S-Team? Why did he have their powers? Why did the Hamil Faction want him specifically? He pondered these things and possible answers until he felt a small thump on his shoulder. Niko had fallen asleep and was leaning on him. Chippy was impressed at her ability to sleep in such a stressful situation, but he knew it wasn’t just laziness, it was a tactical strategy. The more well-rested she was, the more energy she would have for any fast-paced events later on. He wished he had her ability to fall asleep on a dime, but he hadn’t gone through the same training as she had. He let her lean on his shoulder for the rest of the ride there, it was the least he could do.

        Chippy felt a slight amount of turbulence a few hours later, signaling that the plane was landing. Niko opened her eyes and realized what she had been doing in her sleep.

        “Aw ee,” Niko apologized with a slightly red face. Chippy shook his head, he was just happy that he could help in any way.

        “It’s time to get out, come on.” The soldier stood up and began to walk down the aisle. Chippy and Niko had no choice but to comply, so they followed him.

        They arrived at what looked to be an ASI base, but nobody was questioning why Chippy and Niko were so heavily restrained. In fact, it almost looked like they were all happy to see them.

        “Eh ih aw uh ah ih ah oh?” Chippy tried to ask a question, but the rag stopped him from speaking.

        “This is getting annoying, come here.” The guard forcefully ripped the rags out of both of their mouths, granting them the ability to speak again. Chippy coughed a few times and restated his question.

        “Is this all the Hamil Faction?” The soldier smiled again once he heard the question.

        “You’re not as dumb as you look. Yeah, this is a base entirely swamped with Hamil Faction members. To my knowledge, not a single ordinary ASI employee works here, it’s essentially our main base of operations. I even think the boss is here today, maybe you’ll get to meet him.” Chippy thought about meeting the boss. If he could find him, then he could escape from the base and let John know who the leader was. When he knew that, he could bring the entire thing down.

        The soldier led them into the main part of the base, which seemed different from all the other bases Chippy had been in. Since the hangar was now outside instead of being a large, underground complex, the layout was much different. The layout of the building wasn’t the only different thing, though. It seemed to have a sort of menacing aura, fitting for the context.

        “You know, when I woke up, I was hoping that this was all a dream.” Niko spoke to Chippy as the guard led them to the subject cells where they would likely be kept.

        “I’m still hoping it is,” Chippy responded with a weak voice.

        They eventually passed by all of the ordinary cells, which was odd. Chippy thought they would have been containing them for a while.

        “Where are we going?” The soldier didn’t answer as Chippy’s own question was answered for him. They passed through a door just after he finished speaking, which revealed a large cell that he could only assume was used for the most dangerous of subjects. Instead of the ordinary metal bars, there were walls entirely made out of strong glass. Cameras were all around the room that pointed at the cell, monitoring any movements that those who found themselves inside would make. There was a single toilet, a sink, a bed, and a ceiling lined with rectangular lights that you would expect to see in a school.

        “You two will be staying in this cell until he gets here. If you so much as breathe incorrectly, I’ll have a hundred soldiers in this room to make sure you’re back on track.” Chippy wondered how one could breathe incorrectly, but he guessed it may be another phrase that he hadn’t heard yet. Chippy and Niko were led into the cell and had the door shut behind them. Metal bars sealed it shut as they inserted themselves into the door frame on each side, just what did they expect them to be able to do? The rest of the room was white and barren, with a few light bars illuminating it from the ceiling. Chippy wondered what other horrors could possibly warrant this kind of containment.

        “Just sit still, It’ll make my job easier. Don’t even try getting out, that glass is made out of cubic silicon nitride. I don’t know much about that stuff, but I guess it’s super strong and the name is supposed to scare you.” The guard sat in a chair right outside of the cell, watching them as if the cameras were not enough.

        “So, what exactly is so special about those handcuffs? Chippy should be able to break through them with ease. He held back a missile, you know.” The guard snickered at Niko’s question, who was she to ask things?

        “I appreciate how bold you are, girl. Apparently, they use that chizon stuff that John’s been having his scientists work with. I ain’t paid enough to know how it works, but apparently they drain energy, making the people who wear ‘em weaker.” Niko was surprised that she had her question answered, she expected to be treated more like an annoying child.

        “I’ve heard about chizon before, apparently the things it makes are somewhat fragile without the right protection, right? They have to be built specially in order to contain the energy the chizon uses. Draining power is new to me, though.” Niko was putting something together in her head, but neither Chippy nor the guard could tell yet.

        “Why do you care if they’re fragile? If it has enough metal around it, then it’s strong enough.” The guard began to get somewhat suspicious, why should she care?

        “Chizon equipment is specially guarded whenever it’s made, since it’s so difficult and expensive to work with, not to mention the sheer amount of power it packs. The Hamil Faction must have stolen a piece while it was still in development, there’s no way that John would let a finished product be stolen.” Niko continued to put pieces together in her head, Chippy had begun to see what she was planning.

        “You’re observant, all right. How does that help you, though?” Niko smiled after getting her confirmation.

        “The bulking-up phase comes last.” Niko quickly turned around and slammed her own handcuffs on Chippy’s. After the first swing, Chippy’s cuffs cracked in several areas. The guard stood up and pointed his gun towards the two, he even fired off a few shots, but the protective glass wouldn’t let the bullets pass through. On the second swing, some pieces began to fall off, revealing a dim, blue light coming from inside. On the third swing, they broke down and fell on the ground. Chippy saw a small blue crystal fall out of each of them, and then everything went black.

* * *

        “It’s been good talking to you, Lucas, but I have to get going now. Chippy and Niko are waiting on me outside, and we have two more countries to visit before Chippy can go free.” John stood up and began making his way to the door. He had spent about fifteen minutes talking to Lucas, so Chippy and Niko were likely getting bored.

        “That’s fine, John. Hopefully we can see each other again soon. Good luck on your mission.” Lucas got up and went for the door himself. The only reason he was at home right now was for his meeting with John, so he had to get back to work. In all reality, he should have been in some fancy government building for the meeting to make everything more official, but he didn’t want to go through all the preparation for no reason.

       “Thanks. Alright, Come on guys, we’ve got to…go?” When John went outside, he saw no sign of Chippy or Niko. He had expected them to be waiting right outside, but neither of them were.

        “That’s odd, maybe they’re in the helicopter.” John walked further down the driveway, where they had landed the helicopter. However, when he got closer, there was no sign of them through the glass, either.

        “Where could they have gone? Chippy! Niko! It’s time to go!” John called out to them, but he got no response. Was this some sort of dumb joke?

        “I’ve got security cameras all around my house. Do you want to look through their footage to see what happened?” Lucas had heard John’s dilemma and decided that he could spare a few extra minutes to help him. He didn’t necessarily like spending all day in government offices, so helping an old friend with a problem was a much better alternative. 

        “That’d be great. I’m hoping that they just wandered off somewhere and it isn’t something worse.” John followed Lucas back into his home and he began to feel slightly panicked. If he did lose them, then Chippy would be the second subject he ever lost and Niko would be the first pilot. Well, first pilot on a mission he was on, that is. It would be right before retirement as well, rubbing salt in the wound.

        “I’m sure it’ll be fine, John. They probably just walked off to another part of my house. Young people are prone to exploration.” John sure hoped that was the case, but something told him that the itch for exploration might not be what got to them.

* * *

        Chippy’s eyes tried to adjust to the inky darkness, but there was no light to adjust to; the room was pitch black.

        “What’d you do? I need back up!” Chippy could hear the soldier yelling, but he was blinded as well, leaving him harmless.

        “I honestly have no idea what happened, but we’ll take whatever we can get.” Come on, we have to find a way out of this cell.” Niko expected to just hit the cuffs off of Chippy so they could bust free with his powers, but it seems that the exposure of the chizon caused a blackout.

        “I can hear you! You'd better stay in that cell!” The guard yelled out an empty threat, he wouldn’t be able to do anything if he couldn’t see.

        Chippy grabbed Niko’s handcuffs and pulled apart the chains as hard as he could. After a few seconds of pulling, they snapped and she was freed as well.

Chippy punched the glass with his fist, but the recoiled in pain. It was incredibly strong. Maybe if he had more time to power up, he would be able to shatter it, but he didn’t know how long this blackout would last, so he needed a better solution.

        “How strong can some special glass be?” Chippy wanted to question how ASI could make something so weak so strong, but he needed to move quickly.

Chippy sent a barrage of punches at the glass wall, but for some reason, despite how much he hurt his hands, he didn’t even dent it.

        “That’s not going to work. Try something else!” Chippy thought of what else he could do. How else could he break through glass this strong?

That’s when he thought of a new solution. 

        Chippy pressed his hand against the glass, and it began to shift slightly. He focused heavily on his hand, doing his best to cool it down as much as he possibly could. If he strained the muscles in his hand, it would cool off even more, so he strained it as much as possible and focused on making only the hand cold, rather than let it spread throughout his body.

        “What are you doing, Chippy? It’s getting cold in here.” Niko crossed her arms and shivered, why was Chippy changing the temperature?

        “What are you doing in there? You’d better not be trying to get out!” The soldier had been maneuvering himself through the darkness, trying to get around without seeing anything. He was attempting to get to the door to block it off, but that wasn’t where Chippy was anyway, so he was wasting even more time.

        “This is another one of those random, weird things that I remember. When things get cold…” Chippy brought his arm back, then punched at the cold glass with all his might. It developed a large crack across the entire thing. Chippy punched it again and it shattered completely, giving him and Niko an opening to escape.

        “…They become easier to break.” Chippy grabbed Niko’s arm and leaped through the hole that he had made in the glass.

        “What did you just break? Where are you?” The guard heard the glass shatter and cautiously walked towards the sound, going slow enough to make sure that he wouldn’t hurt himself.

        Chippy took his other hand and heated it up for a light source. He could make this one hotter faster since his other hand was still cold from shattering the glass. As soon as his hand provided a few feet of light after bursting into flame, he saw the soldier running at him.

        “Woah!” Chippy pushed the guard back while he was panicking, but he accidentally used his hand that was on fire. When the soldier fell over, the sparks that were left on him lit his shirt on fire, which quickly spread to the rest of his outfit.

        “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!” Chippy took a few seconds and looked at the soldier, who was rolling on the floor just like the guy on the boat. Then, he took his cold hand and swatted it at the guard, which released somewhat of a wave of cool air and out the flames. Instead of following his training, the soldier remained on the floor and looked up at Chippy, who was intimidating being illuminated by the orange flame of his hand.

        “Just go, the rest of the soldiers will stop you.” The soldier spoke meekly, as if he was scared of Chippy. He nodded his head, then stepped over the soldier to head to the door of the room.

        “Sorry if we damaged your uniform, he’s still getting used to using his powers for fighting.” Niko apologized to the soldier, then stepped over him.

“Oh, don’t be,” The soldier sarcastically said.

* * *

        John had spent several hours watching through the day’s security camera footage in a room dedicated to showing everything the cameras had picked up. Lucas had lost his remote to his TV—where all the footage was sent to—so instead of just fast forwarding until he saw Niko and Chippy, he had to sit through and pay close attention to hours upon hours of horribly boring footage.

        Eventually, something interesting finally caught his eye. He saw movement towards a bush in the front lawn, but he couldn’t tell what went into them.

        “That was too big to be an animal, maybe I’ll finally make some progress.” John spent a few more minutes watching the video and saw more things enter the bush. The last one spent a second or two right outside of the bush, and he could tell exactly what it was.

        “Is that an ASI soldier? I didn’t call anyone in, what are they doing there?” John continued watching and saw himself arrive with Chippy and Niko, so he estimated that there would be just a few more minutes before he saw what happened. At this point, he knew that those soldiers had something to do with it. Chippy and Niko would have come back in by now since he was taking this long. Finally, after all of those wasted hours, he saw Chippy and Niko leave the building without him.

        “What did they do to you?” John watched as the soldiers shot Chippy and Niko with tranquilizers, which was strange to him. He knew that Chippy was resistant to them, so they must have used something stronger on him.

He watched the soldiers come out of the bushes and pick Chippy and Niko up, then carried them past the detection range of the cameras. John stood up and began pacing around the room, thinking about why the soldiers would take him.

        “Could it have been the Hamil Faction? No, They wouldn’t just up and take them like that when I’m so close, right?” John knew that it was likely the truth, though. They had finally found their opening, and they took it.

        “Where would they take them? They have to have some sort of base of operations somewhere.” John didn’t know of any ASI bases that seemed suspicious to him, so it was a complete guessing game.

        Well, at least it would have been. A stroke of luck came by him, and he received a call from one of his bases. It was a reporter base, one that monitored ASI itself rather than monitored anomalous subjects and events wherever they may appear.

        “Hello, what is it?” John was hoping that they would tell him something he liked to hear, even if it meant finding out one of his bases was infested with the Hamil Faction.

        “The entire pacific region of the U.S. is experiencing some form of blackout. Most places have regained power, but all of Nevada as well as the edges of the states surrounding it have had a complete loss of power for the last few minutes.” John put his hand on his forehead, yet another problem was rearing its ugly head, and he didn’t have time for it.

        “Have you discovered the center point of the power outage?” John decided he might as well start on this problem while he had no leads for Chippy and Niko.

        “It looks like NV-51 is the source of the power outage, but we don’t have any electricity-controlling subjects there. What do you want us to do?” Upon hearing this, John began to connect the dots. If they didn’t have any electric subjects there, then it meant something strange was going on, and wherever he would find something strange going on in an ASI base, he would find Chippy.

        “Do your best to get the electricity back running. I’ll fly myself in and check out what's going on.” John hung up the phone and left the camera room, he had a base to get to.

        “Oh, John! I just found that remote, it was under the couch. Here you go.” Lucas offered the remote to John that could have saved him hours, if only it was given to him hours before. Attempting to conceal his rage of his time being wasted, John declined the remote and said his goodbyes to Lucas.

        “Good luck on finding Chippy, I hope the rest of your mission goes well.” Lucas waved at John as he quickly paced down his driveway.

        “Thanks, I hope the same thing.” John climbed into the driver’s seat of the helicopter and started it up. He then flew into the air, flying a helicopter for the first time in a while. While he couldn’t do all the maneuvers that Niko could, he could still fly it, and that’s all he needed right now.

        “I’m gonna need something faster than this.” John decided to take a slight detour to a nearby base so he could get a quicker vehicle, he needed to get to Nevada as soon as possible.

        “By the layout of the city, the base should be right about here…” John had memorized that ASI bases were typically in the middle of the south-eastern most quadrant of any city. Using this, he was able to determine where the ASI base in this city should be. He pressed a button on the panel that activated a cloaking system and a sound muffler to avoid public detection, then landed on top of a supermarket that had the letters ASI printed in small text on the roof, a symbol that he could use to be sure he was in the right spot. There was likely an opening hatch for the helicopter, but it would be faster for him to just leave the cloaked helicopter on the roof and let someone else bring it down for him. Once John walked down the stairs that connected all the way from the roof to the basement hangar, he was instantly greeted by several employees, but he gave them a simple wave as he continued on with his mission. As soon as he reached the middle of the hangar, he cleared his throat, and yelled out for the entire base to hear.

        “Excuse me! I need all of your attention immediately!” The whole base immediately hushed and turned to him, they all recognized him as the indisputable leader of ASI. 

        “I usually ride helicopters for how easy they are to maneuver, but I need the fastest vehicle that this base can offer. I need someone to lead me to that vehicle and drive it for me; it also needs to have four seats. What do you people have?” There was a short moment of silence after John finished speaking as people wondered why he needed to move so fast, and then soon after a random pilot stepped forward.

        “The Albatross-22 jet is probably the fastest thing at this base with four seats. Would that work?” John nodded his head and the pilot then led him to the jet.

        “I don’t know the names of all the vehicles, so I don’t know what I’m going to be riding. Why don’t you go ahead and tell me about this thing?” John decided to make small talk as they walked through the hangar, he might as well do something during this walk. The rest of his employees that had been looking at him returned to their normal activities, and he could see his helicopter coming down a vehicle elevator in the center of the hangar.

        “It’s a jet that was designed to go as fast as possible while being able to hold more than one person. Through all the math stuff, they figured out that five seats were the maximum they could have without any sort of major speed loss.” The pilot began naming off facts about the jet as they came up on it, and John couldn’t say he was disappointed by the design. It was sharp with a sleek, black, metallic paint. The interior was red with white highlights, and the seats had been designed to be comfortable.

        “These scientists, man. I swear, they get smarter every day. This thing is able to change the force you feel inside of it, so you could stand while almost going mach four and feel nothing.” John was increasingly impressed by the technology of the vehicle as the pilot told him about it. It had always amazed him what science was capable of, and he was especially excited to see where the chizon technology he had been investing in would lead. It had been very promising as to what it was capable of, but the consequences of misusing it seemed to be pretty dangerous. It had shown the potential to knock out an entire state’s power grid.

        “Wait a minute, knock out an entire state’s power grid… No, they didn’t get their hands on more chizon tech, did they? John suddenly realized just how dire the situation was. It was bad enough that they were able to use chizon missiles, but now they had other devices that used it? This was bad.

        “Pilot, what’s your name?” John decided it would be awkward to just keep calling him pilot.

        “My name’s Marley, sir.” John nodded his head as he got into the jet, which they had just reached.

        “Alright, Marley. I’m not sure how skilled of a pilot you are, but I need to get to NV-51 as soon as we possibly can. Something is going on there, something terrible, and if I’m not there within the next hour or two, ASI itself could be at risk. Are you up for this?” Marley had never been on such an important flight before, he usually just transported subdued subjects between bases, but he was willing to help in whatever way he could.

        “Anything to help, John. It’s what I signed up for.” Marley got in the jet himself and put the key in to start it up.

        “Good answer.” John smiled and fastened his seatbelt, preparing himself for the long ride he was about to go on. ASI technology was incredibly advanced, chizon wasn’t their first major breakthrough that they had hidden from the rest of society. They had developed intricate methods to help with everyday activities and to be as efficient as possible. One of John’s personal favorites was the ability for any aircraft to operate with maneuvering capability more similar to a helicopter. Most ASI jets at this point had the ability to stop in midair using thrusters found on the front and bottom-middle areas of the vehicle. They also had the ability to act somewhat like cars in the fact that they could roll on the ground and brake if needed, a feature used all the time to get aircrafts into the central lift of ASI hangars, where they would be transported to the roof for takeoff. They had also figured out how to perfect cloaking mechanisms and muffling devices. They were able to reflect the sky off of every surface of ASI aircrafts as well as reduce the loud sounds of a jet down to a light hum at the cost of a little extra energy. This stealth was perfect for leaving or entering ASI bases so that the public wouldn’t question why such vehicles were associated with buildings that didn’t make sense. The final major discovery they had made was the ability to get such large things off the ground without the need for a runway, or at least only the need for a few feet to take off. The bottom thrusters had a small, concentrated amount of highly potent yet fairly cheap fuel that could last for around five minutes, giving whatever it was attached to plentiful time to get up to speed in midair without the need for a long strip. All four of these factors led to air vehicles being much more convenient to use, and gave ASI the ability to have disguised bases that nobody would suspect.

        The jet had rolled into the lift and a nearby operator activated it. Walls closed in a square formation around the lift and it acted as a giant elevator that led to the roof. Before they reached the top, Marely activated the stealth system to hide from any bystanders, and as soon as the lift penetrated the roof, he activated the bottom thrusters of the jet. Once all the preparations were made, they soon took off into the skies.

    “What have those idiots done?” The power had completely gone out and Jerry could see next to nothing. Never in the history of ASI had the power been completely drained before, so he hardly even knew what to do in the situation.

        “How could the power have gone out? Something weird is happening, even the backup lights are acting like they’re almost out of batteries. Wait, if the backup power is almost completely drained, then that means…” Jerry realized just how bad the situation was. If all the power was out, then that means that any electric doors that would contain subjects were now just ordinary doors that had no means of actually stopping them from getting out. Chippy suddenly dropped from Jerry’s greatest worry to his least.

        “I have to get the power back running!” Jerry grabbed a flashlight and attempted to turn it on. It, of course, was drained of its battery, so he threw it across the room in frustration. Instead, he was guided by the dim illumination of the nearly-depleted backup lights. He left his living quarters in search of a breaker of some kind. Just after he left, though, he heard a phone in his living quarters ringing. His cell phone was dead, like every other device, but this phone was a landline, so it would work without any form of electricity around.

        “What now?” Jerry wished he could just destroy the phone and make it useless like everything else, but this had to be an important call; nobody ever used the landline. Jerry picked up the phone and listened for the person on the other end.

        “Have I caught you at a bad time? I’d say the base was abandoned if I didn’t see a few people running around here and there.” To add on top of all of Jerry’s problems, D was now harassing him about their deal. Was he outside right now? Also, how did he figure out the landline number?

        “We’re just having a few technical difficulties, we’ll be ready in thirty minutes.” D sighed upon hearing this. His schedule was too busy to wait on someone else’s mistakes.

        “You’re really pushing my patience right now, my experiments can’t wait for much longer.” Jerry paused after D mentioned experiments, that was what he had been worried about, and that’s what he wanted to do?

        “Experiments, you say? What kind of experiments?” Jerry began to question what D was trying to do. Even if it were for money, he didn’t want Chippy to suffer.

        “You’re in no place to know what I want to do, you’re already lucky that I gave you this much information. Get Chippy ready for me to pick up and I’ll give you your money. You have thirty minutes, or else our deal is off.” D hung up the phone, leaving Jerry in the dark, both literally and figuratively.

        “Shrug it off, Jerry. You have a job, now go do it.” Jerry breathed deeply, collected himself and headed out, looking for a breaker.

        “This place is like a maze in the dark, who came up with this design?” Jerry carefully made his way through the base, making sure not to bump into anything or crash into anyone.

        “What was that?” Jerry heard a scream come from a distant room, then rapid gunfire. In just a few seconds, the gunfire ceased, and the screaming stopped.

        “That’s just great, the subjects must have actually escaped. Now I have to deal with monsters on top of Chippy.” Jerry drew out a pistol that was attached to his belt and held it out in front of him. He had to admit that he felt a little nervous. In a fight against a powerful abomination, he wasn’t sure that he’d win.

        Just after questioning his own strength, he heard a door slam open in back of him at the far end of the hallway that he was traversing. He quickly turned around as he heard footsteps rapidly approaching. Through the darkness, he was able to see one of his soldiers running at him, appearing as if she was scared for her life.

        “Boss, they’re all free! Come on, you have to help us!” The soldier grabbed Jerry’s hand and tried to pull him towards the danger as if he could protect her any better than she could protect herself.

        “I know, I know.” Jerry quickly aimed his pistol at the soldier’s head, then shot her without hesitation. She fell over on the ground, laying limp and lifeless.

        “But a real soldier wouldn’t come to a middle-aged man for help.” Jerry watched as the soldier morphed into an ugly blob that somewhat kept the form of a human. It had a consistency like jello and slowly began to melt down onto the floor.

        “You aren’t special, there are at least twelve other subjects like you in different bases. Stay there, you’ve already caused enough trouble for me.” Jerry stepped over the thick puddle on the ground and continued on his path. For him, it was always easy to tell if someone was a shapeshifter subject, they never quite acted how a regular person would. He wondered what other things awaited him as he continued further through the base, as well as what other challenges he may face in the thirty minute timeframe he had.

* * *

        Chippy had heard noises coming from all over the base, they were creeping him out as they were mostly screams and gunfire, but he didn’t know why the soldiers would be so scared of the dark. Niko had been guiding him since she knew the layout of the building and he provided extra light with the flames coming off his hand. Somehow, the orange lighting on the dark walls of ASI made the entire experience all the more more unsettling. He wondered how long it would take for them to escape the base, they had already been walking around for about ten minutes.

        “We could’ve been out of here by now if they didn’t bring us to NV-51. This base has such a weird layout because it’s used to contain stronger-than-usual subjects, so I don’t know my way around as well as any other base. I’m sorry this is taking so long.” Niko had been getting slightly confused with the directions due to being in a special base, but she was doing her best to get them out.

        “There’s no need to be sorry, it’s the Hamil Faction’s—” Niko put her hand over Chippy’s mouth.

        “Shush.” Chippy quieted down, then Niko waved at the flames in his hand. He closed his fist to put them out, assuming that’s what she wanted. There was now only dim light from the backup strips and the only sound was the occasional whir of equipment in the distance, along with their own breathing.

        Something was off, though. If he listened very carefully, Chippy could hear a third person breathe. They were just about to turn a corner before Niko stopped them, so he could only assume that they were around that corner. Niko got as close as she could to Chippy’s ear, then whispered as quietly as she could.

        “He has a gun, let’s team up on him and take him down.” Chippy nodded, but Niko had no way of seeing it. She was able to tell that he did, though, as she could feel some of her hair that got partially caught on him move along.

        “Three, two, one, go!” Chippy quickly lit his hand back up again and sprinted past the corner, the guard was caught dumbfounded. He attempted to reach for his pistol, but Niko grabbed it from his belt and threw it down the hall. Chippy saw that the guard was about to call out for help, so to avoid more unwanted attention, he quickly cooled his hand down to below freezing. Ice molecules began to gather around it, so he slapped them onto the guard’s mouth, freezing it over so he couldn’t speak. He accidentally applied a little more force than he would have wanted, though, and ended up knocking him unconscious instead of just keeping him quiet. He fell over and shattered the ice that contained his mouth, but he wouldn’t be making sound any time soon.

        “Woah! You didn’t need to knock him out, we just had to restrain him!” Niko bent down and made sure the guard was okay. He was still breathing, so she determined that he was fine enough.

        “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt him. I don’t know my own strength.” Chippy looked at the face of the soldier, which was now peacefully sleeping. He hoped he hadn’t caused any permanent damage.

        “I guess you could say I knocked him out cold.” Chippy cracked a joke as they left the soldier alone, but Niko didn’t laugh.

        “That was terrible, Chippy.”

        “Yeah, I know.” They both continued on with their escape from the Hamil Faction’s base, doing their best to navigate through the maze that trapped them. After a little while, though, they started to become concerned about how they weren’t seeing any more soldiers, or even other people for that matter. There should be over a thousand at this base, so why weren’t they running into more?

        Suddenly, they heard ragged breathing coming from a door to their left. It sounded like someone was injured and needed help.

        “Hey, is someone there?” Niko slowly opened the door and saw a janitor sitting on the floor, his hands cradling a wound on his upper leg that seemed to be pretty serious.

        “Oh, thank goodness you’re here. I need help getting out of here, I can’t move.” The janitor didn’t seem to care that Chippy was outside of containment, his life was his main priority right now.

        “Chippy, he’s hurt. We have to help him out of here.” Chippy agreed and attempted to help the janitor up, but as soon as he did, his leg started bleeding again.

        “Argh! I’m losing too much blood, put me back down!” Chippy hurriedly put the janitor back onto the floor, which slowed the bleeding of his leg significantly.

        “You’re Chippy, right? The one with four different abilities?” The janitor knew who Chippy was since he was such a popular subject among the Hamil Faction. He had caused lots of controversy since he was crucial to whether they stayed standing or not. D had the power to expose them at any time, and he had shown that he had no care for their cause.

        “Yeah, I’m Chippy. Why do you ask?” The janitor looked at the fire Chippy held in his hand, then back at Chippy himself. He didn’t want to request something that would be so painful, but he knew it had to be done.

        “Chippy, you have to cauterize his wound for him to stay alive.” Niko requested the treatment for the janitor so he wouldn’t have to do it himself. Chippy furrowed his brow in confusion. Cauterize was a word he hadn't heard yet in his time of being on Earth.

        “It means to burn it so the bleeding stops.” After Niko gave him a short explanation, he immediately felt bad for the janitor. Everyone that he had used his fire on panicked and rolled around trying to put it out, and now this guy just had to take it?

        “Mister, what’s your name?” Chippy asked for the janitor’s name so he could more easily talk to him while he was cauterizing his wound. He’d rather call him by his name than “mister” or “sir.”

        “My name is Charlie, please don’t let my boss know that I didn’t try to capture you, I can’t lose this job.” Chippy liked that name. He also liked how honest Charlie was, it let him know he wasn’t all bad.

        “Charlie, do you agree with what the Hamil Faction does? Killing things off just because they’re different?” Niko questioned Charlie about his morals. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy that cared about powers or abilities, especially with how he was talking to Chippy. Charlie hesitated for a moment before responding, thinking about what he was going to say.

        “…No, I don’t. I’ve just been too scared to leave, I’m afraid of what they’ll do to me if I just abandon them.” Charlie truly didn’t agree with them, but he had seen what they did to others who left their cause, and it wasn’t pretty.

        “If we help you now, promise that you’ll help us uncover who the leader is, and that you’ll help us shut it down for good.” Charlie didn’t have a choice. It was die now to the wound or die later by the hands of the Hamil Faction, so he decided to have at least a few more days before he was killed.

        “Fine, just stop this bleeding already.” Chippy focused on his hand and made the heat more intense, he wanted this to get over with as soon as possible.

        “I’m sorry for this.” Chippy quickly slammed his hand down onto Charlie’s thigh, which mostly covered the wound that he had. While the flames themselves weren’t useful for the procedure, Chippy’s hand was hot enough that it could seal off the wound.

        “It’s gonna be okay, Charlie. I’m almost done.” Charlie had tears in his eyes, but remained nearly silent during the procedure, with only a few grunts of pain here and there. Chippy respected his toughness, even if he didn’t know what being burned felt like.

        “And… Done.” Chippy removed his hand from Charlie’s thigh and rubbed the dry blood onto his pants, cleaning his hand as best as he could. Charlie was breathing heavily, trying to ignore the pain the best he could. Between his panting, he managed to get a few words out to thank Chippy.

        “Thank you, Chippy. I’ll expose the Hamil Faction before they can get to me, I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.” Charlie used all of his willpower to stand up on his weak legs. It hurt immensely, but he had to push through.

        “Who gave you that wound anyway? Why would someone shoot you? Actually, what kind of bullet did they use? That wound was huge.” Charlie’s eyes went wide in realization that he had forgotten about the thing that hurt him in the first place.

        “That wasn’t a bullet, all the subjects are free. They’re out running loose everywhere in the base. I don’t know where my attacker went, but it bit off that part of my leg, then spit it out. It was almost like he just did it for fun.” Chippy and Niko felt their stomachs drop. Neither of them had thought about the other subjects getting free, but it made sense if there wasn’t any electrical power right now.

        “I… I don’t think he ever left.” Charlie began to nervously look around. If the thing that bit him came back, he wasn’t sure he would get so lucky again.

        “What did it look like?” Niko prepared for the worst. The bite on Charlie’s leg was about an inch or two deep and several inches wide. Whatever was around, it was capable of causing serious damage.

        “I didn’t get a good look at it, but it looked like some sort of feline creature. Sort of like a cat, but bigger and way scarier.” This reminded Chippy of the time he fought a tiger. If he could beat that thing so early on in his journey, then he could certainly beat whatever was threatening him now, right? Chippy made his hand hotter so it would burn brighter, and upon doing this, it revealed that they were in a janitor’s closet of sorts. It was very big and was filled with tens of different cleaning substances across the shelves.

        “I guess John likes to be clean,” Niko said as she continued looking for the possible threat. Chippy moved his hand towards one of the corners of the room to illuminate a dark blindspot and it revealed a small, black cat. It stood still, looking into the flame that came off of Chippy’s hand.

        “That can’t be it, can it?” Chippy stepped closer towards the cat as Niko and Charlie looked on. There was no way that this small, harmless creature was what caused Charlie so much pain.

        “No! That’s him, Chippy! Be careful!” Charlie backed towards the door and put his hand on the handle. If things got dicey, then he was out of there. He knew it was a cowardly thing to do, but he was fine with being a coward. He was just a janitor, after all. Nothing in his contract said he would be dealing with this.

        “It’s just a little cat, how could he hurt you so bad?” Chippy reached out his non-fiery hand to the animal as a sort of peace offering. It remained still as he approached it.

        “Be careful Chippy. Charlie doesn’t have a reason to lie to us.” Niko backed up herself, as she didn’t want to fight against something she couldn’t beat.

        “Hey little guy, aren’t you cute?” Chippy let the cat sniff his hand as he gave it baby-talk. Dealing with the situation peacefully would likely bring the best outcome.

        Then, before he could react, the cat horribly transformed into a much larger form. It was skinny and its bones jutted out, making disgusting lumps of skin appear all over its body; and its eyes turned completely black. A lot of its hair shed as it grew, giving it a wispy coat that could easily be seen through. Its teeth became razor sharp, and each one was about as long as Chippy’s thumbs; it could easily chomp off a limb if it wanted to.

        And it decided to try just that. It pushed its large head forward and opened its mouth; it planned on taking a hand away from Chippy. Luckily, Chippy was able to light his other hand on fire just before it bit down, causing it to recoil in pain as its tongue felt the heat of the flames.

        “Charlie, Niko, get out of here!” Chippy looked back to make sure they were both safe and saw only Niko remaining in the room.

        “Huh? Where’d Charlie go? Did he already leave?”

        “He left as soon as the cat started to transform, but I’m going to stay by your side. We’re going to get out of this together.” Niko encouraged Chippy even after the person that he had saved abandoned them. She knew that he had what it took to defeat any subject that may be in this base.

        Chippy began backing off of the cat as it started to become less afraid of the fire. It was only a few more seconds before it would pounce on him.

        “I don’t think you understand, Niko. Get out!” It then clicked in Niko’s head what Chippy was planning. She slowly turned the door handle and slinked out of the room. She didn’t want to be caught in the blast.

        “Hey, uh, big kitten. If you just go back small right now, nobody will have to get hurt.” The cat-creature snarled at Chippy, showing its defiance to him.

        “Please?” The monster attempted to pounce on Chippy to crush him under its newfound immense weight, but he had been preparing for that to happen. One of the main powers Chippy had wanted to replicate was being able to cause explosions. He had never been able to get it to happen under command, but he now believed he knew how he did it. As he tried to make peace with the cat, he had been cooling down his non-hot hand to very low lows since he knew that talking most likely wasn’t going to solve the situation. Before the cat landed on him, he slammed his two hands together in order to create a loud, blinding heat explosion. As soon as the extremely high and low temperatures collided with each other, a loud blast came from his hands that knocked the cat away from him in midair. All of the cleaning supplies on the shelves fell off of them, creating a massive pile of various soaps and cleaners. Chippy had to make sure to cover his head as they came down so it didn’t get hit.

        After the chaos cleared, Chippy quickly heated his hand back up and looked in the direction that he had seen the cat fly. It was now back in its small form, laid leaning on the eastern wall of the room. It didn’t seem to be terribly injured, but it was certainly now more fearful of Chippy.

        “Good, you stay there.” Chippy slowly backed towards the door and reached out behind him for the handle, keeping close watch on the cat just in case it decided to try anything funny. As soon as he was able to touch the handle, he quickly opened the door and slammed it shut behind him once he was through.

        “Is it dead? It sounded like a bomb went off.” Now that Chippy had more control over his powers, he was able to use them in much more potent manners. The increased power of this explosion compared to his last one was no different.

        “No, It’s fine, just a little spooked. Where’d Charlie go?” Chippy looked around and didn’t see the janitor anywhere.

        “When I got out of that room, Charlie told me the directions out of here and then limped off. He was too afraid of what the Hamil Faction would do to him if he stuck with us, so he said he would rejoin them for now and tell the rest of ASI all he knows later, after all this clears up.” Chippy was slightly annoyed that Charlie abandoned them, even after he saved him from death, but he could understand why he wouldn’t want to stay with them.

        “You said he gave you the directions?” Chippy was ready to leave this place, it was swarming with things that wanted him dead, whether they be human or not.

        “Yeah, I can get us the rest of the way there now, so just follow me.” Chippy nodded his head and followed Niko through the dark halls of the complex.

    Jerry had finally found the breaker he was looking for, but no matter how much he messed with it, he couldn’t get the electricity back running. It was as if all of the electricity in the area had simply been absorbed, never to be seen again.

        “What happened here? Energy doesn’t just disappear…” Jerry slammed the breaker shut in anger, then it swung back open and hit him in the face, further increasing his fury. Jerry this time slowly shut the hatch, but he made sure to look very angry while doing it, despite nobody being around to see him.

“What time is it even?” Jerry checked his watch, but the electricity in it had been drained, too. 

        “Perfect.” Jerry brought his arm down, frustrated that none of his tools seemed to be working. Even flashlights weren’t doing anything, so everywhere he traversed was almost pitch-black.

        “Experiments… Just what kind of experiments?” Jerry liked ASI because, although they did contain their subjects, they still treated them fairly. Even the Hamil Faction didn’t let them suffer anymore, they just put them out of their misery in a quick manner. If D was planning on putting Chippy into pain, then it would violate the ideals of both ASI and the Hamil Faction.

        Jerry left the breaker room and continued to ponder what D might do. He could tell from just over the phone that he was the type that didn’t really care what happened to others, which made him an even more dangerous person. If he truly was this way, then Chippy was in real danger. This fact kept pestering him over and over, eating away at his brain until it was the only thing he could think about.

        “Wait, what was I even doing?” Jerry caught himself walking through the halls with no actual goal in mind. He held his forehead with his hand, a tic he had picked up from John while he spent so much time with him. It was like D was taking over his mind. Jerry had never even met the guy, and yet he always seemed to be present.

        “Focus, Jerry. You have one job to do, go do it. Go find Chippy and give him to D.” Jerry broke into a light run so that he could investigate all the halls and rooms in the base as fast as possible. He would find Chippy before he left this base, and he would take him down himself if he had to. Jerry had memorized the exact layout of this base due to it being the Hamil Faction’s main base, so he knew the most efficient path to cover every room. He assumed Chippy was smart enough to not get lost and revisit rooms he had already been in, so he didn’t recheck any areas that he had already been in himself.

        “This place really is creepy when it’s dark.” The dim lights just barely penetrating the darkness of the base reminded him of a horror game. Though, some of the things that he may find loose in the base could come straight out of a horror game. Just as his thoughts began to wander into the territory of nightmarish creatures, he heard pitter-pattering behind him.

        “Speak of the devil.” Jerry followed his training and stood still. He listened closely for more sound, remaining silent as well. The only things he could hear now were his light breathing and heart beating in his chest.

        Jerry slowly drew his gun from his hip as quietly as possible as he heard more of the pattering coming from behind him. He’d have to turn around if he wanted to face his target. Jerry wondered what in this base would make such a sound, but he had failed to remember every creature the building contained. It definitely couldn’t be humanlike due to the sounds it was making, which prepared him for the worst.

        Jerry felt a small drop of warm liquid land on his shoulder, confirming to him that he was being hunted. It was likely that the hunter in question was standing over him, waiting for him to make a sudden move before it struck.

        “Typical.” Jerry speedily aimed his gun behind his shoulder and pointed it up just a little. He fired without hesitation and listened as whatever behind him squealed in pain.

        “Let’s see who you are…” Jerry turned around to confront his now-crippled attacker; he’d like to at least see what wanted to eat him. When he turned around, he saw a centipede-esque creature. Each segment had four legs, and there were eight segments total. It was likely that if it were stretched vertically, it’d be about twenty feet tall. Its mouth was full of razor-sharp teeth, each of which capable of doing fatal damage on its own, and its eyes were black as night.

        “Classic superpredator. Scary, but always has a weakness.” Jerry kicked the centipede to see if it was still alive, to which it writhed around, unable to stand back up. Jerry felt bad for the creature, so he used his gun to put a few more bullets in its head to end its suffering.

        “This place’ll be fun to clean up once this is all over.” Jerry looked at the monster for one last second, then continued his jogging pace through the facility. He was beginning to become hopeless, thinking that Chippy may have already left during all the confusion and during all the time that he spent trying to get the power back on, but he had to at least try to find him.

        Then, just as he entered the last hall, the one that led to the main entrance of the building, when he thought Chippy was already lost, he saw him. He didn’t no longer needed the dim lights to see, flames came from Chippy’s hand, illuminating the entire hall. Niko was there with him, too. He didn’t care about her nearly as much, but she would still have to be killed so she didn’t give out any information.

        “Don’t exit that door! Wait!” Jerry broke into a sprint to try and reach Chippy before he left the building. If he got outside, then it was all over.

        Chippy didn’t look back. In the time that they had been searching for the exit, he had already fought one soldier and a monsterous cat. He didn’t need any more problems than what had already been caused for him.

        “Let’s go! We can outrun him!” Chippy grabbed Niko’s arm and accelerated towards the exit. He didn’t go as fast as he could, as he knew that Niko wouldn’t be able to keep up with him if he did. Instead, he went at what he determined would probably be an average human sprinting pace.

        “Stop!” Jerry drew his gun from his belt and prepared to fire, but it was too late. Chippy had burst through the door and was free to fly away into the open skies. Jerry felt his heart sink upon realizing his failure; he could have caught Chippy then and there if he had just been a little faster.

        “I… I lost him. I lost the money… It’s all gone.” Jerry went through the doors himself to see if there was maybe just a chance that he could still capture Chippy, but what he saw surprised him.

        Instead of an empty outdoors hangar, thousands upon thousands of Hamil Faction soldiers stood armed and ready to fire. They had all evacuated the base to catch Chippy outside instead of looking for him inside; they actually came together for once and did something smart. Not even Chippy could dodge thousands of bullets, so he stood still with Niko by his side.

        Jerry looked up and saw a lone helicopter flying above the standstill. ASI helicopters, unless they were for transportation, were meant to fly together. This wasn’t a model that he recognized, either. No, it was D. D was flying right above him, waiting for his delivery. Jerry looked at Chippy’s face, it was one of worry and fear. Niko had the same expression, they were both out of options. Who knew what would happen to them next?

        “...Who knows what will happen to them?” All of Jerry’s remorse, his guilt, his conscience were brought back to him at this moment. What he was doing was wrong, and he knew it.

        Jerry saw his troops looking to him for guidance. They didn’t know whether to fill Chippy and Niko with holes, to move in on them, or worry about the helicopter above him. He had to decide what happened next, Their fate was up to him.

        “What is going on here? Why are you all aiming your guns at these two? It’s common knowledge that John wants them free, so why are we threatening them?” Chippy looked back at Jerry, whom he hadn’t seen in quite a while. What was he doing at the Hamil Faction’s base?

        Jerry’s soldiers caught on to what Jerry was doing, pretending like he wasn’t associated with the Hamil Faction. While they didn’t know why he was doing it, they still obeyed. They brought down their weapons and awaited hearing what he would say next.

        “Chippy, Niko, I don’t know what’s gotten into these soldiers, but I apologize on behalf of all of them.” Chippy and Niko were incredibly relieved that Jerry was here. The Hamil Faction wouldn’t want to act out in front of someone of such high power… Was that it?

        “Jerry, this entire base is all Hamil Faction! Every single soldier here is a part of it!” Chippy told Jerry news he already knew. He just had to figure out how to play it off like he didn’t know without confusing his own troops.

        “That’s a bold statement, but I’ll have it looked into. Soldiers, Go recapture all of the loose subjects! I don’t want any of you to mess with Chippy anymore!” The soldiers looked at each other, slightly confused, but it didn’t take long for them to follow their orders. Many went back into the base together in groups to look for everything that was lost. After most of the soldiers dissipated and the crowd began to thin, D’s helicopter turned around and flew away. D was done with him, and he couldn’t feel more free.

        “Why’d they listen to you? Shouldn’t the Hamil Faction disobey you?” Niko was confused as to why Jerry had so much control over the soldiers.

        “Perhaps we aren’t seeing the full picture, there may be something bigger at play that we don’t understand yet.” Jerry lighty alluded to his role in the Hamil Faction, but neither Chippy nor Niko got the hint.

        “Well, obviously, I’m very busy right now, and I need to get going. Niko, I hereby declare you Chippy’s guardian until you get back to John. Feel free to take any of the vehicles around here to leave.” Jerry seemed to be in a hurry to leave, almost as if he were nervous about something. Chippy didn’t really mind, though. Jerry always seemed to be the flighty type.

        “You’re not going to help us at all? I thought that you’d want to keep watch over Chippy, at least until John got here.” Jerry was internally screaming, he wanted Chippy far, far away from the Hamil Faction as soon as possible, and they wanted to stick with him?

        “If he hasn’t tried to destroy the Earth yet, then he won’t try on a short ride back to John. I really have to be going now, there are a ton of loose subjects in that base right now that I have to help clean up. Good luck with your mission, Chippy.” Jerry turned around and speedily walked away from both of them. He was eager to get out of there, even if it meant returning to a dark base full of freaks of nature.

        “Well, I guess that’s that. Hopefully Jerry’s able to get some information from everyone here; it’d be great if we could make more progress on shutting them down. I have to admit though, it was pretty unprofessional for him to just leave us.” With both Jerry and Charlie now on the case, Niko believed that the Hamil Faction may finally be reaching its end, but she still thought it was weird for Jerry to just hurry off like that. She thought it was even weirder how they all listened to him to stop attacking them. They both stood by for just a few more moments, still slightly shocked that Jerry was able to cool the situation down so quickly. After that, they left to go find a helicopter to bring them back to John.

* * *

        It had been around thirty minutes since Jerry left Chippy and Niko behind. His soldiers had done an excellent job at capturing all of the subjects, even if they had to kill off a few. Jerry hated to have them in the Hamil base itself, but he needed at least a few so the place wouldn’t be too suspicious to John.

The power had recently come back as well. After a brief investigation, Jerry discovered a loose chizon gem in the cell that Chippy and Niko were supposed to be in. He wasn’t entirely sure how the substance worked, but he did know that it was capable of both giving and taking mass amounts of energy if it wasn’t handled carefully. Dropping it on the floor would definitely cause it to act out, so he knew he had found his culprit. He had a small group carefully remove the chizon from the area without touching it. It was unknown what would happen if someone touched it directly, but with its ability to take away so much energy, it likely wasn’t good.

    Jerry was feeling pretty good about himself as things got cleaned up. He was finally feeling like a leader again, and not like he was just being controlled by someone higher up. Well, that was until D called him again. Jerry felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, so he took it out and was horrified to see that it was D’s number once more. What more could he want? Their deal was done.

“What do you want, D?” Jerry answered the phone and started the conversation off with an irritated tone.

        “Oh, I see you’re angry right now. I’m sorry, but I believe that my intense, unquenchable fury slightly outranks yours.” D talked in fancy terms like he always did. He reminded Jerry of an overconfident nerd in school, except this nerd actually had power.

        “And why do I care about your anger, D?” Jerry let D know that he didn’t care about him anymore with the words he chose. D let out another one of his faint laughs over the phone.

        “I think you care about my anger much more than you know. You see, Jerry, if you had just failed me and couldn’t get a hold of Chippy, I may have considered just letting you off the hook. It’s hard to control someone several times stronger than you…” D paused for a moment before continuing on.

“But you simply chose to defy me. I saw your little stunt you did with your soldiers, forcing them all to leave Chippy alone, and I can only imagine that’s because I said I wanted to experiment on him, right?” D awaited Jerry’s response, but he already knew that was the reason.

        “Yeah, I kill subjects in humane ways, I don’t want them to suffer.” Jerry wondered what D would say next. Did he care about that?

        “I don’t want anyone to be hurt, either, Jerry. In fact, I’m entirely against your entire operation, killing things because they’re different. However, I’m working on a project much bigger than either of our ideals or beliefs. Both of them should be put second behind this grand scheme for the sheer importance of it. I’d like to tell you what exactly it is, but I’m afraid it would be dangerous to my operation. You understand, don’t you?” D rambled on about how important he was, and Jerry couldn’t say he cared very much.

        “Where are you going with this?” Jerry just wanted D to get to the point.

        “If you had just failed, I would have never spoken to you again. You, however, chose to purposely disobey me when you had every opportunity to fulfill my request. For that, I have chosen to punish you.” Jerry now began to feel slightly nervous. What was D planning?

        “You know, two can play at that game. Do you realize the power that I hold? I could ruin anyone’s life on this Earth right now if I chose to.” Jerry decided he was finished backing down. He was finally taking the more aggressive approach he had been waiting to take this whole time.

        “You think you have control over this situation? If you believe that ASI has any control over me, then you’re terribly mistaken. ASI can do a lot, I’ll give them that, but when it comes to punishing me? You people couldn’t find me if you scanned the entire Earth, much less do anything to me.” Jerry began to feel slightly threatened again. He remembered how Dude’s phone was somehow untraceable, yet it was the same number every time. D definitely did mean business, and he knew what he was doing.

        “I’m feeling generous today, though. I had my favorite coffee, I got eight full hours of sleep, and I even finished up one of my smaller projects, so I’m in an overall good mood. I’ll give you one more chance to catch Chippy for me. I’ve heard about his mission that he’s on, so I’ll give you until ASI is entirely done with him to get him to me, however long that may take.” Jerry couldn’t believe D’s audacity. He was so bold and confident that he thought he could just start Jerry back up again?

        “What makes you think I’ll do that for you? I won’t let you experiment on him, and I don’t care what you have to say.” D was silent for a minute or so before speaking again, it seemed he may be thinking.

        “I have every single piece of information on the Hamil faction’s operations available to me. I’ll leak that to John and you’ll live a life imprisoned along with the subjects you hate so much. The Hamil faction will be destroyed the moment you refuse me. Need I convince you further?” Jerry knew that was coming, and he knew he had to continue to refuse.

        “I won’t do it.” Jerry remained adamant that he wouldn’t continue to harm Chippy, he knew what was right.

        “No? You sure are a tough negotiator. How about this? If you refuse me, I will not only leak the Hamill Faction’s information to John, but I’ll leak all of ASI’s information to the general public. Every single subject, file, and operation will be broadcasted on live television, radio, anything that can connect to the internet. Who knows what’ll happen then? Maybe the entire world will accept it, maybe anarchy will break out, I suppose you have the choice to see what happens or not.” Jerry had been prepared ever since the thought came to him of refusing D that the Hamil faction may be torn down, but this was a new thing entirely. If ASI was leaked to the rest of the world, chaos would break loose like it had never seen before. Nobody was prepared to see what was hidden from them, and he knew it.

        “Decide right now what you’ll do, and I’ll hold true to my word.” Jerry felt himself breathing heavily. The weight of perhaps a historical, worldwide event was on his shoulders. D claimed to know everything about ASI, and he had backed it up just by knowing how to contact John and Jerry.

        “Are you out of your mind? Do you know what would happen if this information got out? You can’t actually think you would benefit from doing that, right?” D let out one of his signature chuckles. Was this guy insane?

        “I have all the benefit to gain from the world knowing about ASI, I’ll let you decide whether I do or not.” Jerry was torn. He couldn’t let everyone know what they were hiding, but he couldn’t let Chippy suffer from this guy either. He had to do one, though. He had to decide what he was going to do, and he had to do it now.

        “I’m waiting…” D taunted Jerry as if he was some animal. The helplessness he felt was terrible, he was locked under D’s influence again.

        “Fine, I’ll have Chippy for you before we’re done with him.” Jerry decided that the safety of billions far outweighed the safety of one, even if it was a decision he hated to make.

        “Great choice! I’ll be eagerly waiting on you, Jerry. I hope to hear back from you soon. D out.” The phone hung up, leaving Jerry a broken man that couldn’t be fixed.

         “These big ambushes aren’t seeming to work. I’ll have to do something on a smaller scale. I’ll have to do something myself.” Before Jerry could continue rambling, one of his soldiers burst into his bubble of depression and helplessness, distracting him from his currently horrible life.

       “Hey, Jerry! Think you could help us with this cat-thing? We’re having trouble getting it to come out of the janitor’s closet. We can’t find Charlie anywhere, either, we think it may have gotten him.” Jerry decided to spend time with the only family he had. The hopes and dreams of those along with him in the Hamil faction were the only thing that kept him going.

        “Sure, let’s see if I can’t help.”

    “That was so weird! I still can’t believe that they didn’t just shoot Jerry on the spot, did they think that he wouldn’t believe us?” Niko kept going on about the encounter as they flew through the skies. She was shocked about what had happened and couldn’t get over it.

        “That really was strange. Why would they think he’s someone they should listen to? That entire group’s just gotten more confusing the longer I’ve been here.” Chippy had no idea what their true motives were, but they definitely seemed to be focused on him for some reason.

        “Hey, is that a jet?” Niko spotted another aircraft heading towards them, from what she could see from here, it appeared to be an Albatross model. They were typically used for quick transport, so she wondered what it may contain.

        “You don’t think that it may be…” Chippy wondered if John could be inside of it. He was a little late to the party, but if it was him, it was still nice to know that he was going out of his way to find them.

        “Now that it’s getting closer, I think I do see him in there! Let's meet up with him, we’ll finally be able to get back to our mission.” Niko pushed the controls forward and headed directly towards the jet approaching them. She knew the Albatross model had the ability to stop in midair for about a minute at a time, so they could meet with each other and discuss where they went next.

* * *

        “John, we’ve got a helicopter coming directly towards us. How would you like to proceed?” Marley told John what he already knew. He had gone into a mission database just prior to see what helicopters were out for registered missions, whether it be capture or transport, and the nearest one was thirty miles away. Somebody who was either incredibly forgetful or somebody with malicious intent was flying that thing.

        “You have the InstaStop system on this thing, right?” The system that John referred to was a recently invented mechanism that shot a high-frequency, focused beam of energy in front of whatever it came from. The energy would make its way into whatever it was shot at, and if an engine just so happened to be part of it, it would scramble the electronics, causing it to stop entirely.

        “Yeah, but won’t that kill the people in there? We’re thousands of feet above ground, they can’t survive a fall like that.” John had thought about this, but he honestly didn’t have much care at this point.

        “If they’re smart, once the blades stop, they’ll jump out with the parachute that they should have brought with them. Then, we can go down and interrogate them before they can get away. There’s only farmland below us, anyway. It’s not like we’ll cause any drastic destruction.” Marley shrugged and opened a small glass cover on the jet’s control panel. He pressed the red button it encased, and the InstaStop program was activated. The high-frequency ray shot out from the bottom of the jet and pierced directly into the helicopter a few miles away.

* * *

        “Hey, they shot us!” Niko felt a bit of a rumble in the helicopter and had seen a weapon come from the bottom of the jet. She didn’t see anything come out of it, but something had to have. She looked over the electronics of the helicopters for any signs of damage, but they seemed to be fine.

        “They must think that we’re their enemy, how do we tell them that we’re us?” Chippy thought it was odd that John would fire so early, but he couldn’t blame him. With all that had happened recently, he was likely very worried right now.

        “Uh, I don’t think that’s our first problem.” Niko watched as the electronics began to go out one by one. That seemingly harmless thing that rumbled the helicopter was now disabling all of its electronic components. Once all of the things on the board went out, the aircraft began to descend.

        “What, is he trying to kill us?” Niko and Chippy tried to frantically think of ideas before they started plummeting too fast, and the only thing that came to mind was Chippy holding the helicopter up himself.

        “This’ll hurt!” Chippy knew good and well that his psychic powers were the hardest of the bunch for him to use, he always ended up getting a headache from them. Regardless of how much it hurt, though, he knew what he had to do. He focused as hard as he could on the helicopter and imagined it floating. Once he did, he felt the immediate strain on his head, and the helicopter began to float.

* * *

        “Hey, that helicopter isn’t going down anymore. Was I off on my shot?” Marley questioned why the thing wasn’t plummeting to the Earth, but realization almost immediately hit John. He noticed that the blades were slowing down, but the helicopter stayed in the same spot. He must’ve just ordered an attack on the vehicle Chippy was in, and he was the only thing keeping it up.

        “Get to the side of that thing, now!” John violently commanded Marley and he obeyed, bringing the jet the rest of the way to the helicopter as soon as he could. Once John got a little closer, he could confirm that Chippy and Niko were in the helicopter, and that Chippy was giving it everything he had to keep it up. Marley activated the hover function, giving them a minute or so before they would have to begin moving again.

        “You shot us!” Niko yelled at John as he opened up the hatch to the cockpit of the jet. He nodded with a flat-mouthed expression.

        “I know, just get in here so we can move on.” Marley positioned the wing to be right next to the helicopter so Niko could easily step on it. She did, then climbed her way into one of the two remaining seats.

        “Get over here, Chippy!” John estimated they had about thirty seconds left of hovering time, Chippy needed to hurry it up.

        Chippy, though, was struggling to keep the platform under his feet lifted. It would be much easier if he could just drop it and then fly to the wing of the jet, but the roof would catch him as it fell, dragging him down to the planet.

Chippy took his first step forward, which caused the entire helicopter to tremble. Doing absolutely anything else broke his focus, especially with such a heavy object.

        “Come on Chippy, just a few more steps and you’ll make it to safety.” John encouraged Chippy the best he could given the situation, but that was all he really could do. If he were to get out and try to help Chippy, he may distract him too much and the helicopter would go down.

        Chippy took a second step, this one shaking the helicopter slightly more. Chippy could feel his headache increasing in power by the second, so he knew he didn’t have much time before he ran out of willpower. He took his third step, which led him to the very edge of the helicopter’s door. One more step and he would be free from the metal deathtrap. Suddenly, though, the jet began to move forward again. It started off slow, but it wouldn’t be long before it blasted off again.

        “Marley, what’s going on?” Niko knew that Chippy still hadn’t boarded the aircraft, and they couldn’t just leave him and come back.

        “This jet only has a little bit of the fuel needed to hover in midair, if it doesn’t start going soon, then we’ll plummet.” Marley explained the situation and revealed that they were between a rock and a hard place. If they didn’t stay, then Chippy would fall to his doom, but if they did, then the jet would run out of hovering fuel and nosedive to the Earth.

        “Chippy, you have to jump!” Chippy, while laser-focused on what he was doing, could see that the jet was leaving him. He knew that jumping would definitely cause him to lose grip on the helicopter, but it was his only option. He crouched down a little, then leapt forward as far as he could. He was barely able to grab onto the wing of the jet with how far it had gotten, but he managed to hang on. He could feel the mental release of him letting go of the helicopter, so he knew it was going down.

        Just as he was about to pull himself up, he felt a tug on the back of his shirt below him, which quickly ripped most of it away. He looked down and it was revealed to him that the blade of the helicopter had caught on to his shirt when it fell. If the blade had been just an inch closer to him, it would have hit him and brought him and possibly the jet down, so he was glad it didn’t. John left his seat and offered his hand to Chippy to help pull him up. While he didn’t necessarily need help, he accepted the gesture and had John help him up.

        “Both of you get in your seats, now! I really can’t keep us going slowly for much longer!” Marley warned both Chippy and John before they could say anything else, so they both hurried back to their seats. The glass hatch closed above them, and they accelerated to several hundred miles per hour within a few seconds. Nobody really knew how to start talking about everything that had happened, so an awkward silence filled the jet for a few moments before John finally broke it.

        “Promise me that you two won’t find any new friends to run off with again.” Chippy and Niko both chuckled a little before responding.

        “We won’t abandon you again, we promise.” Niko responded for both of them, this caused John to smile.

        “Good.” He turned around and faced the windshield, only to be interrupted by a phone call almost immediately.

        “Really? Can’t these people just—” John was about to complain about ASI constantly needing him, but then noticed that the number calling him wasn’t one of ASI.

        “What is it, John?” John usually answered his phone immediately, but this time he let it ring a few times, Chippy wondered what was causing him to act differently. After hearing it ring a few more times, John finally answered the phone and put it up to his ear. He wasn’t entirely sure anyone else should hear what may be said.

        “John Johnson, is this you?” The voice seemed direct and to the point, what could it want?

        “Yes, that’s me.” John listened closely for any subtle noises or movements over the phone, which could help indicate just who this was.

        “This is Terrence Freeman, the president of the US. an outside source has leaked certain information to me about Chippy which proves to me that he is highly dangerous. I demand a meeting at the white house tomorrow at five PM, or else I will focus every military unit I have on hunting you and Chippy down regardless of what country you’re in.” John was surprised to hear a world leader being so direct with him. Usually, he was the one that demanded the meetings, not the other way around. While he knew that no government could ever truly penetrate ASI’s secrets, he still did find it slightly menacing that somebody had leaked information about Chippy.

        “Under ASI legal clause eight, I have the right to know who gave you such information, who was it?” John needed to know who was doing this so he could either arrest or fire them, depending on what their ASI status was.

        “This phone line may be tapped by the leaker themself, I’ll let you know at our meeting tomorrow.” John disliked being pushed around, but he was already in the US anyway, so it would only make sense for his next meeting to be here.

        “Fine, five o’clock tomorrow.” John accepted the meeting date and time, even if it was likely possible for him to be able to do it today instead.

        “Good, I’ll see you then.” The phone hung up, leaving John with many questions, especially the question of who may be leaking classified information.

        “Who was it, John?” Niko was curious as to who John sounded so serious about.

        “That was the president of the US demanding a meeting with us tomorrow. Marley, why don’t you bring us to a base in DC?” Marley nodded and changed course, turning the jet more to the right.

        “One thing though, John. I’m supposed to be an object transport pilot, I never signed up to give rides that could kill me. After this, could you promise me that you won’t need my help anymore?” John grinned at this statement. It amused him how people were so resistant to going outside of their comfort zone, but he supposed that Marley was a special case. Chippy was a wanted criminal, after all.

        “Sure, just get us to our next destination and I’ll send you on your way. Since you were such a big help, I’ll give you a bonus on your next paycheck.” John could tell that made Marley happier, money was always a great motivator.

        “So, we found someone in the base that said they would help expose the Hamil Faction, his name was Charlie. If we can find him, wherever he’s gone, then we’ll be even closer to getting rid of them.” Chippy let John know about Charlie. He wished that he would have stayed with them, but he was sure that they’d cross paths again.

        “Charlie, huh? I’ll begin a search for him, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him in the database.” John got onto his phone and began messing around on it, trying to find Charlie.

        “Do you know what he was doing? His specific job, I mean.” John had searched Charlie’s name and had gotten several hundred results from across the world.

        “I think he said that he was a janitor.” Niko hoped that she had recalled correctly, It’d be a pain if she didn’t remember right.

        “Let’s see… Charlie McCoy. He’s a beginner janitor at… NV-51, would you look at that?” John read further into Charlie’s profile and saw something that interested him further.

        “A participant of project PW, huh? Brave soul.” John muttered to himself, making Chippy curious as to what it was.

        “Project PW? What’s that?” John hadn’t really meant for anyone to hear him, so Chippy’s question surprised him.

        “Oh? It’s a project I have planned to happen a year or two from now. It involves attempting to give normal people anomalous abilities, but it’s proven to be a very dangerous concept.” Chippy wondered why John would want to give people abilities if he contained people like them, but John seemed hesitant to explain the project further; it must’ve been a super-secret thing.

        After that, the rest of the jet ride was fairly uneventful. Aside from Chippy and Niko explaining the rest of what had happened, it was just a long wait until they finally got to Washington DC, the home of the president. After a few hours, they finally made it to their destination. Marley had brought them to a base close to where their meeting would be, it was disguised as a hardware store. He activated the stealth system and landed the jet on the vehicle elevator on the roof; it then proceeded to activate and bring them down into the guts of the building. As the jet began to power down once it was safely stopped in the underground portion of the base, everyone got out, with only Marley going separate from the rest.

        “Thanks again for your help, you’ve been a great pilot.” John called out to Marley as they walked away from them, thanking him for all they’d done.

        “No problem, good luck on the rest of your mission.” Marely waved as they finally parted ways. John, Chippy, and Niko made their way to John’s living quarters for this base, which was an area that they had become very accustomed to.

        “You two can relax until tomorrow, this whole thing interrupted all of my plans. I’ve got some other things I can do while I’m here, though, so I won’t be around. Be good.” John left Chippy and Niko alone while he went off to go file reports. Neither of them had the greatest idea how to spend their time. Maybe they could play the weird block game again.

        “I’m gonna go take a shower, it’s been a few days since I last had a chance. I’m sure you can find a way to entertain yourself.” Niko went to the back portion of the living quarters and into the bathroom, leaving Chippy by himself.

        “What is there to do?” Chippy was always preoccupied with things like escaping secret bases and meeting with world leaders that he hardly had a chance to do normal, everyday things; the things he had been aiming for in the first place. He noticed a TV in the base, so he decided to try and use it. He hadn’t ever used one before, so it took him a few tries to turn it on, but once he did, he was immediately shown entertainment. After pressing a few random buttons, he ended up finding a bizarre show where muscular men fought using ghosts behind them. They spoke a language that Chippy couldn’t understand, and he felt like he may have started in the middle somewhere, but he could still somewhat follow what was going on. Whatever he was watching, it must have not been entertaining enough for him to stay awake. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but he was exhausted from his jailbreak. He let sleep overtake him once more.

    With his sleep of course came more dreams. This was another vivid dream that took place in the S-Team’s base. In fact, it was exactly the same as the dream where he met Yasunari.

        “Another dream, huh? Maybe this one’ll answer more of my questions.” Chippy got up in the same uncontrollable way that he had last time, then began to walk down the hall with all of the lettered doors.

        “I went through the Y door last time, so I should go through a different one this time.” Chippy looked at all the letters available to him. M for Minta, T for Tadita, G for Ghusun, Z for Zeem, and F for Flavio.

        “Zeem was the leader, right? He should have more answers for me than any of them.” Chippy decided on the Z door and flung it open before his legs automatically walked past it,

        “I’ve been waiting for you, Chippy.” Zeem, the white-haired leader of the S-Team, sat on a bed in what looked to be a bedroom for a child. It was full of different toys and was painted red and blue. Chippy knew that Zeem was just a part of his own brain dreaming something up, but it still unnerved him how he had said that he was waiting for him.

        “Waiting on me, huh?” Chippy didn’t know what else to say to that, so he just went with a generic response.

        “I don’t have much time to speak with you before you wake up again, but I am glad to have finally been able to reveal myself to you.” Chippy wondered what that meant. Zeem had already revealed himself to him through the computer, and it wasn’t like he wasn’t just part of his dream.

        “If you’re part of my deep subconscious or whatever, then can you tell me why I keep dreaming about you and the rest of your team?” Zeem smiled at this, which slightly annoyed Chippy. He just wanted to get straight to the point of all this.

        “I’d love to tell you everything, but we don’t have much time together. For now, I’m glad to have finally met you.” Chippy couldn’t understand Zeem’s way of thinking. Wait, wouldn’t it just be his own way of thinking? This was so confusing, why was his brain doing this to him?

        “Just tell me what you can, anything!” Chippy became desperate for some sort of information. It had been so long since he had last spoken with the S-Team or had any sort of vision about them that he had nearly given up, but just once he was about over it, they teased him with another appearance.

        “I suppose there’s one thing that I could tell you now. We need very specific conditions to establish this sort of communication, those conditions being you in a sleep phase in which you’re about to wake up. You need to find something or some way that will keep you in that phase for an extended period of time. That way, I’ll have longer to talk to you.” Chippy waited a little bit for the dream to end, but he remained in Zeem’s room. It seemed that he was lasting longer in this phase than usual.

        “It seems that we may have a little more time than I thought. Do you have any simple questions that you could ask me? Something I could answer quickly.” Chippy really wanted to spew question after question about his origins at Zeem, but he knew that if he did, that’s when the dream would likely end.

        “What does S-Team mean?” Chippy knew that the S had to stand for something, and with Zeem being the leader, he would probably know.

        “Ah, it means Superhero Team.” Chippy was slightly taken back by the name, it was sort of underwhelming; he had expected something more grand.

“Just Superhero Team? It doesn’t mean anything else?” Zeem chuckled and looked down. He put his hand behind his neck and thought about old memories.

        “You aren’t the first to complain about that name.” Chippy didn’t think much of it at first, but then he realized that meant Zeem had talked to other people. He couldn’t tell what to believe. Was he talking to the real Zeem right now, or was he just dreaming all this stuff up?

        “Hold on, are you actually—” Chippy felt a rumbling under his feet. The once bright sky that lit up the inside of Zeem’s room through the windows turned to a pitch-black void, with only three lights to illuminate the endless darkness.

        “I knew that you were dreaming about me and the rest of the S-Team, but what else have you been dreaming about in your free time?” Zeem seemed caught off guard by the sudden change instead of Chippy just waking up. The base and everything in it collapsed in on itself, and none of the other members of the S-Team were seen in the rubble. Zeem, however, remained with Chippy after the building fell into the void. Somehow, it all fell through the invisible floor that Chippy was standing on. It was like a filter, getting rid of things that it didn’t want. Chippy noticed that Zeem wasn’t standing, he was floating above the ground in a similar manner to how Chippy used his own psychic powers to fly. Would he have fallen through like the rest of the rubble?

        “Looks like someone else had a reservation for this dream.” Zeem looked at the three lights, they took the shape of a perfect triangle, reminding him of something he had seen in the past.

        “Could they be…?” Chippy wondered if Zeem knew what all this meant.

        “You don’t belong here, Zeemey-boy. You’ve already had your chance.” One of the lights turned lime green in color, then took a shape similar to a human. It waved its arm and Zeem began to fade away.

        “Chippy, you have to—!” Zeem fully faded before he was able to finish his sentence. Did he know these lights?

        The other two lights followed suit of the lime green one, turning gold and electric blue respectively, they then both gained a humanlike form, but were missing smaller details like fingers and facial features.

        “Chippy, do you remember the dream with us that you had a few weeks ago?” The gold figure tried to make conversation with Chippy, he sounded slightly more casual now.

        “Yeah, I remember that dream. Who taught you three to talk normally?” Chippy commented on the figures’ newfound speech skills, they weren’t being near as cryptic as they were last time.

        “We thought back on our previous speech, and found that it may have been hard for you to understand, so we’re speaking in terms that you may find easier to digest.” The blue figure still spoke slightly fancy for Chippy’s liking, but at least it wasn’t just saying “choose me.”

        “That’s great and all, but what did you do to Zeem? Where did he go?” Chippy thought that vanishing likely wasn’t part of Zeem’s plan.

        “We pushed him back into your subconscious mind, he isn’t as important as us right now.” The green figure spoke the most clearly of all three, just like last time.

        “What makes you three so much more important than my own origin?” The figures definitely thought of themselves highly, just who were they?
        “Our cause is greater than you could ever know. Your journey will be well and done before our chance to act will come. You will get to experience the life you so desire without even knowing what we want, all you must do is choose one of us.” When the gold figure finished speaking, Chippy furrowed his brow. They were right back where they started, speaking in cryptic ways and wanting him to choose one of them.

        “I’m sorry, but I’ll need more answers before I choose a random glowing figure that lives in my dreams.” The figures had signs of frustration on their blank faces and in their body movements, they wanted Chippy to choose without going into their goals.

        “Fine, those two insist that we don’t tell you anything, but I can’t see how this is any better.” The other two figures turned to the green one, who seemed much more frank than both of them. They didn’t want him to tell Chippy too much, but the green one didn’t seem near as hesitant.

        “We want you to be a conduit for us, to connect us to the physical world. One of us would require several year’s worth of energy from your body, but you wouldn’t even notice us there.” Chippy started to back up when the green figure said this. Several year’s worth of energy? Chippy couldn’t see how he wouldn’t notice that, much less not be drained of his entire life force.

        “Woah, woah, woah! Several year’s worth of energy? That’d kill me! I don’t know much about the human body, but I definitely know that I don’t have that much energy in me! No thank you, I’ll pass on connecting you to the physical world or whatever.” Chippy turned his back to the figures and began walking away. He didn’t know where he was going, but he assumed that if he walked for long enough, he’d wake up.

        “Wait, that’s not—!” The blue figure called out to Chippy, but before he could finish, the giant dog appeared again, the same one that attacked the figures at the end of his last dream. He stood next to Chippy and looked down upon him.

        “You’re doing very well, Chippy. I look forward to your next visit.” The dog maliciously smiled as he looked towards the figures once more. He then charged forth and headbutted the green one, whipped the gold one with his tail, and then bit down on the light blue one. Chippy was surprised at the accuracy of the giant dog’s of attacks; the figures couldn’t have been much bigger than Chippy himself, he just hoped that he was doing the right thing.

He felt himself waking up as the dog continued its assault, and was happy that this strange nightmare would finally be over.

        As Chippy left and reentered the real world, the dog continued attacking the figures, and the blue and gold ones were furious with the green one.

        “Over the period of several years, not all at once! How could you leave that out, you imbecile?” The gold figure violently spat his words at the green one as he took a beating from the dog’s paw.

        “We were closer than we’ve ever been before because of me! Next time he’s here, we can lure him in for sure!” The green figure did his best to speak, as the dog had moved on from biting the blue one to him.

* * *

        Chippy stretched as he awoke. John had taught him to read time, which was one of the odd abilities he was born without. Once he found a clock, it read 8:02 AM. He had slept for much longer than he would have thought, what time did he even fall asleep?

        “John? Niko?” Chippy’s friends were nowhere to be found, he was all alone.

        “That’s weird, it’s not like them to just leave like that.” Chippy got up and stretched some more. He noticed that he had an annoying crick in his neck, a consequence of falling asleep on the couch.

        “Zeem… Superhero team? So they were a group of superheroes…” Chippy thought to himself about the dreams he had; he had never had two right in a row before. It seemed like both groups, the S-Team and the figures, were wanting to speak with him more and more about their own agendas.

        “Those figures were trying to kill me, I can’t believe it! It’s lucky that the green one told me that, or else I might be dead right now.” Chippy thought about the dog that attacked the figures. This was the third dream that he had seen him in, and it still seemed like he knew him from somewhere besides the dreams. Where would he know a towering dog from, though? It definitely was something that didn’t exist in this world.

        Suddenly, before Chippy could question anymore, John burst through the door with sweat dripping down his forehead. He was breathing heavily and seemed freaked out about something.

        “Chippy, hide! I don’t care where you do, just hide somewhere!” Chippy could tell that this was one of those moments where he’d get an explanation later, so he followed John’s orders. After some quick thinking, he ran for the refrigerator; no person would think to look in there for somebody. At least, he thought he was hiding from a person.

        Chippy swung the door open and used his telekinetic powers to empty it of all its contents. He had to pull a little extra hard to get the shelving out, but it eventually tore and he was able to barely fit into the fridge. With his powers over temperature, he didn’t feel cold. If anything, he felt a little too closed-in; this was the perfect spot.

        Chippy listened closely for anything going on outside the fridge, but he could only hear a few murmurs and banging noises. The temperature insulation also acted as a sound barrier, leaving him wondering what could possibly be going on.

* * *

        “I can’t believe you people are so bold! There are soldier units on their way right now, you only have a few minutes before they arrest you all and take you in for questioning.” The Hamil Faction had gone completely out of control, John was now dealing with a small group of their soldiers busting into his living quarters. They had a lead that Chippy was there, which he was, but the fact that they would even try an operation like this was absurd.

        “Why aren’t you just killing me? Don’t you want control of ASI?” John tried to distract them from their search, but they were laser-focused on their task. He didn’t know where Chippy was hiding, but it was likely that his hiding spot wouldn’t be good enough for four soldiers not to find in such a small space.

        “Our leader is focused on Chippy alone right now, you are of no concern to him.” John was surprised that one of them actually responded to him, and was slightly offended that he was of such low priority. He knew that Chippy was valuable to them because he could net them a large sum of money, but they seemed extra concerned about him now. Just what was going through their leader’s head?

        “Hey, check this out.” One of the soldiers spotted the fridge’s contents all over the floor as if they were thrown out without care. Had Chippy really been that careless with his hiding?

        “What happened here, John?” The soldiers paused before opening the fridge. John knew that Chippy had to be in there, which was quite careless of him, given the lack of oxygen he may be experiencing. After some quick thinking, John came up with a lie, hoping that they may just ignore the fridge.

        “I had some meat in there that spilled juice all over everything else, so I was trying to clean up the mess before you all came on this wild goose chase.” The soldiers took the story into consideration, then began to walk away from the fridge. John couldn’t believe that this just might work.

        “Are you all stupid? Back me up, he’s in here.” What seemed to be the most sensible soldier aimed her gun directly at the fridge. The rest of the soldiers went behind her and pointed their guns as well. An overwhelming feeling of dread came over John, he was in deep trouble. This was obviously where Chippy was hiding, and while he had proven himself able to dodge bullets, John wasn’t so sure about his ability to dodge them when he had nowhere to move.

        The soldier reached out and grabbed the handle, then swung open the fridge. Oddly enough, she didn’t fire; this was because she didn’t see anything there. Instead, she saw a large block of white ice covering the fridge’s opening entirely.

        “I also seem to have a problem with ice building up.” John knew that Chippy’s trick was stupid, but it might just buy them enough time…

        “Go, go, go!” Niko ran into the room with a small group of her own soldiers. They caught the members of the Hamil Faction by surprise, then opened fire at their legs, crippling all of them and rendering them unable to fight back. Niko’s group quickly confiscated them of their weapons, then put them in handcuffs so they truly couldn’t fight back.

        “Thank you, Niko. I knew you wouldn’t fail me.” Once John had gotten word that Hamil Faction members were breaking into the base, he was about halfway between the soldier’s living quarters and his own with Niko by his side. He sent her to the rest of the soldiers to gather a few to fight back and went back to his own living quarters to warn Chippy and get him to hide. With his quick decision-making, he was able to protect Chippy from any harm.

        “No problem. C’mon guys, let’s get these idiots outta here.” The soldiers that Niko gathered each lifted one of the Hamil Faction members over their shoulder, then left to bring them to the containment cells for questioning.

        “Alright Chippy, you can come out now.” John watched the ice in the fridge begin melting. After only a thin layer of ice remained, Chippy pushed it out so he could finally escape.

        “He was in there! He was behind the stupid ice!” The leader of the small Hamil Faction group struggled a little, trying to escape the grasp of the soldier that carried her, but it was to no avail; he brought her the rest of the way out of the living quarters without further issue. Chippy was panting a little once he escaped the fridge. He hadn’t thought about the issue of oxygen deprivation, but he was just glad that he made it out.

        “That was a dumb trick, Chippy, but I suppose it still worked.” Chippy smiled as John finished talking, he knew that his hiding spot wasn’t the greatest, and it was almost funny how he actually managed to make it work.

        “Anyway, thanks to that fiasco, we’re almost late for our meeting with the president. Let’s get going, I have a feeling that this guy isn’t as on your side as Lucas was.”

    Chippy told John and Niko about his dreams as they drove to the White House. While Niko was simply interested in hearing the story, John was writing notes down similarities between these and past dreams that Chippy had. He now knew for sure that these dreams were recurring, so he had to start digging deeper into them. They had already solved the S-Team dreams for the most part, besides knowing how he was connected to them, but these dreams about the dog and the figures interested him highly. Just what could they be about?

        “Then, the dog attacked them, and that was it.” Chippy ended his story abruptly, it didn’t seem like the dog attacking the figures should’ve been what happened.

        “Your dreams get more confusing every time they happen, Chippy. I have a small unit of ASI that researches dreams and their meanings; I'll send this data to them and have them put it together with the other dreams you’ve had. In the meantime, it looks like we’re here.” John pulled into a parking spot which looked to be reserved for staff. Chippy wondered just how many special privileges John had, even if they were small ones like this. They were parked in front of a large, white building that had flags that bore stars and stripes all over them. The building was actually gated off, but someone had let John in after he showed them his special badge.

        They all got out of the car and walked into the building, in which they were immediately greeted by armed guards; it seemed like they were expecting them.

        “Right this way, all three of you.” John obediently followed the guards, wherever they were taking him, so Chippy and Niko did as well.

        “I wonder why these guys feel like they need to guide us. It’s not like we haven’t done this before.” Niko didn’t quite get why the American president was being so serious about Chippy. Even Anton let them walk in without help, so why wouldn’t this guy?

        “I guess some people are more strict than others. Plus, they don’t know we’ve had meetings with other people, do they?” Chippy knew that ASI was all secretive about their meetings and missions, so it wouldn’t surprise him if they made each country feel like they were the special one that had information on him.

        “That’s true, we haven’t told anyone about our other meetings. Look at you, you’re able to answer some questions on your own now.” Niko teased Chippy over his usual lack of general knowledge, to which he smiled and rolled his eyes.

        “At least I can answer some things not related to vehicles.” Chippy teased back, making Niko smile.

        “In this room, right here. If any of you do anything funny during your meeting, we won’t hesitate to break in and shoot.” The guards interrupted Chippy and Niko’s burn war before it could go further; they had to act professional now, they were about to talk with the president. The guards opened the doors for them and let them walk into the room by themselves.

        “Sit down, I’d like this meeting to be over with, and soon.” Terrence Freeman, the president of the U.S., sat at the end of a long table. This reminded Chippy of his meeting with Anton, Terrence had the same unfriendly aura and get-right-to-it attitude. Chippy also noticed just how old Terrence was. He was definitely older than John, and was somewhat skeletal.

        “Thank you for having us. I was going to request a meeting with you before you called, but it seems that we both wanted to see each other.” John attempted to faze Terrence with a little humor, but he was too serious for that to work.

        “Now, we’ll get to Chippy later, I’d like to hear about this ‘outside source’ that called you.” John could honestly care less about what Terrence wanted. He knew that he was the real leader of this meeting, and he could ask whatever he wanted.

        “I don’t want to tell you about government information, but I suppose I have to. He called himself D, and was telling me all about Chippy and the danger he poses.” John was surprised to hear about D again. It had been a while before he had any known contact with him, and for all he knew, he was still working with whoever led the Hamil Faction.

        “We couldn’t trace the call, not even with our technology, but he told me about your… problem, if you’d like to call it that.” John chose his next words very carefully. He didn’t want to reveal more information than he had to.

        “What problem?” John went with the classic option of playing dumb. It worked surprisingly often during these meetings with world leaders.

        “You have a little internal hunt going on with some sort of… Hamil Faction, is it? I’ve heard that they’re hell-bent on capturing Chippy, even if they have to use more, how do I put this? Rowdy methods.” John had managed to keep the Hamil Faction hidden from the rest of the world so that ASI could continue being trusted by governments, but with this leaker at large, no information was safe. What was D’s goal though? Why would he reveal the very portion of ASI he was working with?

        “The Hamil Faction is a very weak part of us, we get closer and closer to shutting them down every day. We’re confident that by the time we’re done with Chippy, the Hamil faction will pose little to no threat at all. Plus, they never mess with subjects once ASI’s finished with them, so even if they are still around by the time we’re done with Chippy, they won’t cause any trouble outside of our own bases” Niko broke in and responded for John. While he wasn’t so sure about the part where she said they were almost eradicated, he was happy with the response she gave.

        “I see, so you’re saying that it’s unlikely that if you let Chippy out into the world, an act of terrorism would be performed to capture him?” Niko nodded her head in response, then Terrence turned to Chippy.

        “With that out of the way, what about those strange abilities you displayed when you first crashed into Earth?” Chippy had almost forgotten that he was allowed to speak during this meeting, so the question caught him off guard. He hadn’t prepared anything to say, so he had to decide whether to lie or tell the truth on the spot.

        “I do have powers that normal people don’t have, however John’s been training me to not use them unless it’s a dire emergency, so you don’t have to worry about me.” Terrence raised his eyebrow after Chippy’s response, had he said something wrong?

        “A dire emergency, hm? Is he training you to be some sort of superhero?” Chippy hadn’t thought about being a superhero, but he supposed it sounded interesting.

        “By dire emergencies, he means life or death situations for himself, he won’t go off purposely seeking out danger to try and fix.” Niko covered for Chippy before he said anything else that Terrence may be able to use against him. It was dangerous to let him speak for himself, no matter how wrong it may seem.

        “I see, so if he sees someone drowning, or maybe about to jump off a building, he’ll just stand and watch?” Niko was stunned by this response, and she couldn’t come up with anything to say back.

        “Just what do you want Chippy to do, Mr. Freeman?” John could tell that Terrence was one of those hard-to-please people that would come up with an argument for anything. It would be best if he took over from here.

        “I want him to walk himself into one of those advanced cells you have and sit in it until he dies. What happened to containing things no matter how harmless they are? That was ASI’s golden time.” John already had problems in ASI itself about the old pure containment policy, he didn't need someone else that was too afraid to move on.

        "If you had a few strange properties that others didn't have, would you want to waste away in a cell for it?" Terrence thought for what couldn't be more than a second before he came up with his answer.

        "Yes." John stood up and hit the table, startling everyone else.

        "Don't lie to me, you’re only thinking of yourself. If you were in Chippy’s situation, you’d be trying anything to get out of it.” Chippy had never seen John take such an angry approach to these meetings before, so it was jarring to see him so furious. Perhaps it was both Terrence’s attitude and the compounding stress the Hamil Faction was giving him that was making him act this way.

        “Are you threatening me, John? I have guards waiting outside that are itching for action.” Terrence didn’t seem very phased by John after the initial shock, which was quite the sight to see. It was unthinkable to Chippy that someone wouldn’t be afraid of John.

        “I have someone sitting two seats away from me that’s legally classified as a weapon of war, not to mention all the others that I do have tucked away in my bases. Enough with the philosophical stuff anyway, The point is—”

        “So you’re admitting that he’s dangerous, then?” Terrence cut John off before he could finish his sentence, which Chippy could tell he didn’t like.

        “Not dangerous unless I tell him to be. Now if you’ll let me finish my sentence, that’d be nice.” Terrence waved for John to go on.

        “I’ve never seen someone get under John’s skin this much, he must be stressed.” Niko whispered to Chippy as they watched the two argue, powerless to contribute. Chippy nodded in agreement.

        “The point is, we’ve both got an endless supply of weapons on hand that we could obliterate the world within a matter of seconds, so let’s try to keep them out of this.” John sat back down, his fit of anger seemed to be over.

        “Just how is Chippy being out and about in the world helping anyone but him, though? I know that I’ll be more stressed knowing he’s free.” John seemed to have an idea now, Chippy could tell when he had a good point ready after all the time he had spent with him.

        “Wasn’t this country of yours founded on a couple of big documents, all with the same central ideals? The Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, just to name a few?” Chippy remembered Niko teaching him about some of these things on their long helicopter rides together. She said that it would be good for him to know about them since it was likely that John would have him stay in the US once they were done together. He wondered why John was bringing them up now.

        “Where are you going with this?” Terrence couldn’t seem to figure out what John was thinking either.

        “All men are created equal, All men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Do any of these sound familiar?” Terrence nodded, he could see what John was doing now, he was using the country’s original ideals against him right now.

        “Chippy, at least in this country, legally has the rights of anybody else. I know that you and your CIA have a few secrets of your own, and you can keep them, but I got to Chippy first, so now I choose what happens to him. I choose that he should be free, and you should agree with that.” Terrence leaned forward once John was done and looked him straight in the eyes, he still wasn’t convinced.

        “Chippy isn’t covered by any of those things. He isn’t a man, he’s a Martian. At no point in any of those documents did we ever cover rights for aliens that could obliterate cities.” Terrence turned John’s own point back against him. Chippy had to admit that Terrence was certainly good at arguing, and he brought up plenty of good points.

        “I’ll admit that you have me there; Chippy's an alien, therefore not technically a man. Although, were slaves truly considered people back when they existed? Things can change, Terrence; it’s only natural.” Terrence furrowed his brow in frustration. It was true that originally, slaves weren’t considered people, but they had gotten their rights.

        “They’re just normal people, though. Chippy isn’t normal, he could cause collateral damage with ease.” John could see this argument was going in circles, he really needed to cement his point somehow, and it was a hard point to cement to someone like this.

        “ASI was originally an American institution, I’m sure you know. Surely, you can trust an organization started by your own ancestors, right? If you can’t trust me, and you can’t trust the people who started the country, then who can you trust?” John unleashed his final statement at Terrence, who had to pause to think about it. Could this be it?

        “I understand that it started in America, but that doesn’t mean it’s still the same to this day. Plus, they weren’t releasing the subjects back then, what you’re doing is unheard of.” John scowled at how stubborn Terrence was. He had good points, it was hard to argue against them.

        “Listen, I promise I won’t cause any harm to anyone, or even use my powers again. You’ll get no trouble out of me.” Terrence sighed in response to what Chippy said. These three were very persistent.

        “And what if I just say… No?” Chippy couldn’t believe the audacity that this guy had, arguing against John after he had already done so much to convince him otherwise. Chippy also noticed John put his hand below the table and set it on his leg. It didn’t look like it was resting, though. He was doing something specific. He formed his hand into a human-esque form, using two fingers for legs and two for arms. He made it perform a little dance, then pointed at Terrence. After a few confusing seconds, Chippy realized what he was telling him to do; he wanted him to use his influencing powers on Terrence. He felt conflicted about it, but he decided to focus on him and do his best to simulate what he had done in the crater as well as what he thought he did to Anton. He noticed Terrence’s expression change, and John then spoke before he could.

        “I’m sure that the world wouldn’t be too upset if I revealed Chippy’s powers to everyone. In fact, I’m sure that there would be plenty who would defend his rights in this new, advancing world. The world, ASI included, is changing, Terrence. The new is now embraced and old traditions are fading away. I suggest you move along with the flow, or you may just be left behind.” Terrence seemed shocked that John would even suggest the idea of revealing Chippy to the world. He also disliked the advancement John spoke of; he believed the world should stay the same. It worked up until this point, anyway.

        “No, you aren’t serious. I know you, John. You would never think to reveal even a single subject.” John snorted, he found Terrence’s fear amusing.

        “I’m not even sure how much longer I can keep ASI as a whole secret, Terrence. Maybe only a generation or two before going public would be more beneficial than staying secret. I’m sure that you’d like to help keep it this way, so let’s not make this more complicated than it needs to be.” Terrence was backed into a corner now. He could tell that John was being serious, and he seriously disliked the power that he had over him. On top of this, Chippy was still influencing him, but it seemed that this was his hardest power to use. He didn’t know how he did it to so many people in the crater, maybe he was distracted by the various other pains he had. Regardless, he could already feel his headache beginning and ramping up at a much faster pace than usual. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up.

        “What’s the point of me being the president if you can just come in and decide what happens? You may as well be the president of the world.” John knew that he had won. Terrence was asking questions that he would expect from a teenager, about how unfair he was being, meaning he had given up on trying to win the original disagreement.

        “I don’t care what you do with your country. You could run this entire place into anarchy with no chance of renewal and I wouldn’t even bat an eye. However, when it comes to subjects that may have an effect on the world as a whole, that’s where I come in. Our ancestors signed the document for this country many years ago stating that I have power, so please, let’s end this and stop wasting each other’s time.” John powerfully finished off his argument, leaving Terrence with nothing more to say.

        “No matter how much I disagree, you keep finding ways around my argument. Our meeting has been had, and I have no way of stopping you. I also have no further reason to have troops actively searching for Chippy. John, I hate you.” Terrence blatantly expressed his disliking for John without fear, but John didn’t seem to mind. He had been called much worse in his lifetime. Chippy stopped his influence and felt immediate relief wash over him, he was glad he was able to hold out.

        “Chippy, before you leave, I have just one thing to ask of you that John cannot answer for himself.” Terrence turned to Chippy for the first time since the start of the meeting, he almost forgot that he was actually part of it. Chippy awaited his question, wondering what he may ask, and coming up with responses for questions he hadn’t even asked yet. It was safe to say he was nervous after how he had almost ruined the meeting at the beginning.

        “What’s it like, having these powers? While I dislike the thought of you being free, that doesn’t mean I can’t be curious.” After he asked the question, Chippy thought back on his whole journey. The trials, the dreams, the friends and the powers. All of them led him back to one answer.

        “It’s cool to have them, but they’ve made life really hard. If I didn’t have them, I think a lot of things would have gone more smoothly up until now.” Terrence nodded slowly at Chippy’s response, he liked it. Chippy didn’t seem like a terrible guy, but knowing what he was capable of struck fear into him.

        “That’s a good answer. Don’t use them and we won’t have a problem,” Terrence said.

        “Well, John, you’ve gotten what you wanted. Your divine opinion and knowledge outweigh mine, so go ahead and get out of here. I’ll cancel the military order to capture Chippy.” Terrence and John stood, so Chippy and Niko did as well. John offered his hand to Terrence, but he didn’t take it.

        “I don’t shake hands with people I don’t like.” John sighed and then retracted his arm.

        “Come on, Niko, Chippy. We have places to be.” Chippy and Niko followed behind John through the awkwardly silent room, out into the hall where the guards that had escorted them waited to bring them back out.

        “This way.” They quickly took the lead from John and made sure to surround them so that they couldn’t do anything funny.

        “That guy really didn’t want you free, huh?” Niko remarked on just how combative Terrence had been. Even Anton submitted to them after little argument.

        “Yeah, I dunno what his problem was.” Chippy was glad that John mostly spoke for him during that, he wasn’t sure that he would have gotten out of there without guards being called to capture him if it weren’t for him.

        “Americans are always difficult. They have a tendency to believe that they’re all different and deserving of special recognition.” John had a distaste for the general population of the US. He knew that not everybody was like that, but it seemed that there were more people like that here than in other countries.

        “Aren’t you American, John?” Chippy couldn’t see how John could dislike himself.

        “I was actually born in Britain, but I never stayed in one place long enough to pick up an accent.” John reminisced about his childhood and how full of moving around it was. Just the first five years of his life were spent in Britain, the US, Canada, Ireland, Nigeria and countless other countries.

        “You know, we can hear everything you’re saying.” One of the soldiers spoke up about everything he was picking up from their conversation. Did they just not care?

        “You don’t have any use for what we’re saying. Do you?” Niko couldn’t see a reason that the guard would mind so much to say something.

        “No, but—” Niko then cut the guard off before he could say anything else.

        “Then we don’t mind.” The guard angrily hushed down after Niko said this. After just a little more walking, they exited the building and the guards returned inside. John breathed in deeply as they stood outside, heading for the car they came in.

        “That leaves one last country to go. We’re in the homestretch now, Chippy.” Chippy thought about what he’d do after he was finished with ASI. The thought of making things interested him, so maybe being a construction worker would be a good job for him.

        “Yeah, you’ve got to be excited. The normal life that you’ve been waiting for is almost here!” Niko noticed that she seemed more excited than Chippy was, though. In fact, he seemed more somber than happy.

        “What’s the matter, Chippy?” Niko wanted him to be happy, not just her.

        “John, you were wanting me to influence Terrence, weren’t you?” John nodded his head, then Chippy looked down at the concrete he walked on.

        “You don’t need to worry about it, Chippy. It’s highly likely that I would’ve found a way to convince him one way or another, so all you did was make the process faster.” Chippy still felt conflicted about it, though. It almost felt wrong to force someone to think a different way, even if they were your enemy.

        “I don’t… I don’t think I’m going to use that power again.” Chippy couldn’t get the image out of his head of Terrence suddenly, although hesitantly, letting him go; it just didn’t sit right with him.

        “You’re not supposed to use any of them once you’re free, but I can understand feeling wrong about using one of them. I won’t ask you to use it again; I probably shouldn't have asked you to do it in the first place.” Chippy let out a sigh and silently swore to himself that no matter what came up, he wouldn’t use that ability again. He felt like it wasn’t worth it due to the feeling he was having right now.

        “You still look like you’re upset about something, Chippy. What else is wrong?” Niko asked

        “It’s just… When I’m all done with you guys, I won’t get to see you again. It’ll be hard to move on after being with you for what’s been my whole life.” Chippy often wondered what life would be like without John or Niko. They both took such big roles, one as a mentor and one as a friend, that he couldn’t imagine life without them.

        “It’ll be okay Chippy. Give yourself a year and you’ll probably be glad that we aren’t there to bother you anymore.” Niko tried to cheer Chippy up, but he couldn’t see himself being as happy without them.

        “Plus, I’m retiring after this mission, remember? I could visit you every now and then, since I’m not going to be so busy anymore. Niko also gets weekends off, plus two weeks every year, so she could visit from time to time, too.”

        “Yeah, we could get together and relive old times at least once a year.” Upon hearing his friends comfort him, Chippy began to feel better. He liked the idea of still being able to see them every once in a while and not just be cut off entirely.

        “Thanks, guys. Alright, let’s go finish our mission.” Chippy cheered up and he and his friends got into their car, heading for their next checkpoint.

    “And this here is the Electropiercer, a fine weapon for what you’re going for.” Jerry hadn’t been idle while Chippy and his friends steadily continued on with their mission. He knew that his own Hamil soldiers were too stupid to actually capture them, and they were way too obvious in their methods. Heck, they went off on their own and broke into one of John’s living quarters! He lost four members during that raid, and it showed how much his control was loosening.

        “That’s a fancy name, what does it do?” Jerry gazed upon the weapon laid before him. He would have preferred chizon weaponry so he could have a sure kill, but it was very difficult to get his hands on. Instead, he’d settle for the next best thing; high-tech electric weapons that could destroy steel.

        “Think of a knife, but the blade is instead concentrated electric energy. Even if you don’t stab whoever you’re fighting, you’ll still taze them if you hit them.” Jerry picked up the knife and pressed a button on it, activating the weapon. It let off a blue glow and took the shape of an actual knife. He shanked the air to test out the weight of the tool and could barely tell he was holding anything.

        “This one’s a keeper.” Jerry deactivated the knife and pocketed it, he would definitely use this in his plan. Jerry glanced around the rest of the room. It was a weapon storage area tucked away deep inside a base in India. This base was known for its weapon manufacturing capabilities and advancements it had made, so he knew he had to pay a visit. Thanks to his high clearance for every ASI base, it was a breeze getting into the place, so all he had to do was pick and choose what he wanted. He was letting an undercover Hamil Faction member show him around, it was good to have at least one in every base. The shelves were lined with various high-tech and unique weapons that each had their own special uses. With all of these different types, there was a match for any anomalous subject.

        “If I may, what are you planning to do with these weapons?” The woman leading him around was curious as to what he would need all of this stuff for. He must’ve been planning something big.

        “I’m planning on luring Chippy into a room with me alone, then I can unleash these weapons on him and bring him down so that I can get him to D. I’ll have some soldiers hold John and Niko back so that they don’t get in my way.” Jerry gave her a basic synopsis of his plan. He didn’t mind her knowing if he was going to announce it to his soldiers anyway.

        “How come we haven’t heard anything about this plan? Shouldn’t we all be chipping in in one way or another?” Jerry in all reality had been hiding the information because he didn’t want the rest of the group to mess it up one way or another, but he couldn’t let her know that. She’d end up telling everyone else and he’d be dethroned.

        “I just haven’t gotten around to announcing it yet; we still have a little while to wait, anyway. Don’t worry yourself about it, I have everything taken care of.” Jerry saw some oval-esque objects in a box next to where he found the Electropiercer, making him curious as to what they were.

        “What are those? In the box, right there.” Jerry pointed at the ovals and then picked one of them up.

        “Oh, those are grenades, sir.” Jerry then dropped the grenade back into the box, not wanting to accidentally set it off.

        “Just grenades? Nothing special about them?” Everything else Jerry had seen had some sort of special property, even if it were something small like being lighter for extra control.

        “Nope, just grenades.” Jerry stuck out his bottom lip and gave out an interested grunt.

        “I’ll take these with me, then. That should be about it.” Jerry lifted up the box, which proved to be heavier than he expected. He almost dropped it, which wouldn’t have been good for a box of grenades, even if they weren’t live.

        “That’s all? Let’s see, you’re wanting the attachable railgun, the metal alloy shield, the Electropiercer, and a whole box of grenades. This must be quite the fight you’re preparing for.” The soldier couldn’t even think of how Jerry could use all these items at once; he must’ve had something grand planned out for this.

        “Oh, just you wait. I’ll be sure to film it from a first-person perspective and make it available for all of the Hamil Faction to see on the day of my victory. Do you want to go ahead and carry the shield and railgun for me? This box is really heavy.” As Jerry struggled to keep the box in his arms, the soldier easily picked up the shield and gun, which couldn’t weigh less than fifty pounds each. Jerry had never been a very strong person, he wondered how much the box of grenades weighed. He hoped it was at least as heavy as what the soldier was carrying.

        “I don’t see how you’re planning to use all these things, Especially if you’re going up against someone that has super-speed. They’re meant for strong soldiers trained to use heavier equipment, and even then we don’t usually use them against agile things.” Jerry grinned at the soldier’s question; her closed-mindedness reminded him why he was the boss.

        “I have everything planned out perfectly. Chippy has hardly worked with any of his powers aside from during the few fights we’ve given him, so he won’t be able to use them as efficiently as he needs to to take me down. Plus, I have the element of surprise on my side. Chippy still doesn’t know that I’m part of the Hamil Faction, so a surprise attack will catch him off-guard, securing my victory.” Jerry’s response didn’t quite answer the soldier’s question, but she trusted in him. He had gotten them all this far, so what was stopping him from getting them D’s money?

        “Whatever you’re planning, I’m sure it’ll be a great show. You get that Chippy, boss!” Jerry felt happy when he heard this, there was at least one person rooting for him. Suddenly though, the door opened to the weapon storage, causing light to shine into the dim room that Jerry and his soldier had been closed in for several hours.

        “Who’s there?” Jerry instinctively shot the question out of his system. While he could come up with an excuse for being there on the spot, he still would look suspicious.

        A janitor walked into the room after closing the door, he then stared at the two intruders in the room for a minute before realizing who they were.

        “Charlie McCoy, Hamil Faction. What are you doing here, boss?” Charlie brought out a card, proving that he was with Jerry. Jerry felt relieved once he heard that it was just another member there, now he didn’t have to come up with a lie.

        “Oh, you’re just another member, phew. I’m, uh, just preparing for a fight I have planned with Chippy. I’ve decided I’m going to take him out myself, and I need the best weapons I can find for it.” Jerry explained his plan to Charlie, which he didn’t like. After having met Chippy and Niko back at NV-51, he hadn’t agreed with the Hamil Faction’s philosophy. He had been laying low in India for a while before he’d try to seek out John, acting as an ordinary janitor and acclimating himself to the new base.

        “Oh, I see. Good luck with that, then. I hope you beat him.” Charlie got out whatever words he could. He hated blatantly lying, but he couldn’t just disagree with his boss right in front of him. He had come to this room to clean it, but he’d leave and do it later if it meant avoiding Jerry.

        “Hey, wait a second, weren’t you at NV-51 once Chippy escaped? I know that most of you ran and escaped to another base after it all went down to avoid greater ASI catching you all.” Charlie froze up once Jerry kept talking with him. He was just about to leave, but now it felt like he was in an interrogation.

        “Yeah, I booked a flight to India to get far away from that place, now I’m just doing my janitor duties here.” Jerry nodded in understanding. If it were him, he’d get as far away from that base as possible, too. In the span of just a few days, NV-51 had gone from a Hamil haven to being the most dangerous place for a member to be. The place had been flooded with people who weren’t a part of the Hamil Faction, and more people that had stayed behind were getting caught every day.

        “That was smart, Charlie. I trust you’ve been finding some minor subjects to eliminate during your time here?” Now Charlie really did feel like he was being interrogated. Why did Jerry care so much if he was fulfilling his duties?

        “Mhm, I’ve been able to destroy a couple here and there. They know that there’s a member here, but they haven’t been able to pick up that it’s me.” Charlie lied once more. Really, all he had been doing was average janitor duty, ignoring any responsibilities he was supposed to have as a member of the Hamil Faction.

        “Great, great. We were just leaving, so you can go ahead and do whatever you were wanting to do here. Come on, let’s get out of here before someone that isn’t a member sees us.” Jerry led his soldier out of the room and made his way sneakily around the base, taking less-traveled halls and heading towards a transport airplane in the corner of the hangar that he had scheduled to leave just for him.

        Charlie remained in the darkened room, thinking about what he should do next. Now that he knew that Jerry was planning to capture Chippy himself, he knew that he didn’t have much time left to find and tell John about Jerry.

        “If I can figure out where Jerry’s planning to capture Chippy, I can tip them off before they get to him. That way, Chippy won’t even have to fight him, since he’ll know that Jerry’s waiting for him. Now my only problem is figuring out where Jerry’s wanting to do this…” Charlie was just a janitor, so he didn’t have access to this kind of information. He had to think of some way to warn Chippy before Jerry got to him first. Then, he thought of it.

        “I can’t believe I’m about to do this.” Charlie dropped the mop he was holding and sprinted out of the room. He wasn’t a very religious person, but he didn’t so much believe in coincidences either. After having his encounter with Chippy, and now just happening to have a run-in with Jerry, he believed that he may have been predestined to prevent Chippy from being sold to D for him to do who-knows-what to him.

        Charlie dashed through the halls, taking the fastest path to the hangar that he knew. If he could catch Jerry before he left, then he could convince him to take him to the base that he was going to. He could only assume that Jerry intended to have his fight with Chippy there, so once Charlie was there, he could wait for Chippy to come to the base, then warn him just before Jerry could ambush him. It would be a last-second warning, but any sort of information would help Chippy no matter what situation he was in.

        Charlie burst into the hangar and surveyed the entire area. Amidst the typical chaotic business and work that usually filled the room, he spotted Jerry and the soldier with him quietly loading the weapons into a transport plane. He dashed over, not caring if he was seen by anyone.

        “Is that Charlie? What’s he doing? I thought he was supposed to be cleaning that room.” Jerry noticed the janitor running hard towards the plane that he was supposed to be laying low in. 

        “Doesn’t he know that looks suspicious? He shouldn’t just run straight towards us like that.” The soldier with Jerry stopped putting things into the plane and watched as Charlie ran towards them like a madman.

        “Wait up! I want to come with you, I want to help with capturing Chippy in any way I can. You’re going to the base you plan to do it in, right?” Jerry quickly put his finger to his lips and hushed Charlie. He had forgotten to be quiet, but nobody seemed to notice him.

        “Fine, you can come if you shut up. We’re going to another Hamil base in Guyana, it’s the last one that we have all to ourselves, and it's our main base of operations until I take over ASI. Get in the plane already, you’ve already caused enough of a scene.” Charlie nodded and climbed a ladder that led up to the door of the plane. He decided to keep quiet now, he had already pushed his luck enough for the day. He found a seat in the main area and sat down, then thought about how much danger he had put himself in.

        “I guess I’ll take as much help as I can get, it’s been difficult to gather a ton of members in one place since the incident at NV-51.” While the Guyana base was fully controlled by the Hamil Faction, it was difficult to get a ton of backup there. People were too scared to come together again so soon, so Charlie coming with him was just one more to add to his army.

        “Alright, that’s everything loaded up. Let’s get out of here.” Jerry took the driver’s seat of the plane and the soldier rode in the co-pilot seat. It was a fairly small plane, mainly meant for the transport of a few important people like scientists or medics to either another base or an area where a subject was drawing a little too much attention. Jerry had chosen this plane because it wouldn’t look too suspicious for him to be leaving in, even if there wasn’t a ton of storage space.

        Charlie looked out the window as he felt the plane slowly roll towards the vehicle elevator. Once they were locked into the lift, he knew that there was no going back. The plane slowly rose through the base and eventually made it to the roof. He felt the plane gain lift by using the special ASI thrusters on the bottom of it, and then begin to move forward towards what would likely be the final rendezvous with the Hamil Faction he’d ever have.

    Chippy, John, and Niko had finally made it back to an ASI base. They couldn’t go back to the last one they were at due to the Hamil Faction raid causing security at it to skyrocket. Nobody would be allowed in or out for the next few days, even John himself would have a hard time getting in. Instead, he just went to the next closest one. This one was disguised as a tuna factory right on the water. 

        “We don’t need to go inside, I’ve got something prepared in the back.” John halted Chippy and Niko before they went further towards the door and instead directed them to the docks in back of the building. Once they turned the corner, they saw a few, small fishing boats floating on the water.

        “John, isn’t Mexico really far away? It’d take these boats months to sail all the way there, if they could even make it.” Niko spotted only a few boats that had motors, most of them had sails that were meant to power them, meaning that they weren’t supposed to go farther than a few miles away from the factory itself.

        “We’ll see about that.” John walked to the far end of one of the docks and bent down, seemingly inspecting one of the few boats that had a motor.

        “Even if that one’s powered by gas, it still wouldn’t be able to make it from Washington DC all the way to Mexico. What are you planning?” John grinned at Niko’s question, then found a button on the underside of the boat.

        “This.” John pressed the button and the boat suddenly began shifting large pieces of stylized metal out of its interior and moving the smaller, average pieces inside. The technology of the thing was incredible, it was like a boat was hidden inside of another boat.

        “Since we seem to be having trouble riding in larger vehicles lately, I decided that we should take something smaller this time. This boat can reach up to three hundred miles per hour and can fit four people, so we’ll have plenty of room. It also has the same gyroscopic technology as a few of our planes do that takes away the feeling of going so fast, so it should be a nice, smooth ride all the way there.” Chippy marveled at the speed that the boat could go, it was faster than the top speed he had ever reached.
        “I’ve never heard of this boat before, is it a new model?” Niko was always up to date on ASI vehicles, but this one was new to her.

        “It was something we made as more of a test to see how compact we could make a high-tech boat than something we actually use often, so it doesn’t appear in any kinds of catalogs or lists. We don’t have that many made, but I figured that since this one was so nearby that we could use this. We’ll go around the eastern seaboard and dock in another waterfront base in Mexico. The trip should take roughly twelve hours, but I’ll slow down and open up the thing from time to time so it doesn’t get too stuffy.” John climbed into the boat’s driver’s seat and waved from Chippy and Niko to join him.

        “What are you two waiting on? Get in!” John turned a key and the boat made a high-pitched sound as the engine started up. Chippy and Niko both walked out onto the dock and carefully stepped onto the watercraft. Chippy was especially wary of the water; he had never learned how to swim, so he wasn’t sure how he’d escape if he did fall in. Once Chippy and Niko were safely sat down, John pressed a button and a roof closed in on them overhead, sealing them away into the vessel. He then typed coordinates into a GPS to guide him to an ASI base located on the coast of Mexico. Chippy wondered how much technology ASI could fit in one small boat like this one.

        “Now, the tech isn’t as polished as in the jets, so hang on for the first minute or so.” John grabbed onto a stick to his right and pushed it forward and down. The boat blasted forward, leaving a massive wake behind it. John, Chippy, and Niko all immediately felt the effects of the speed; they were pressed back in their seats as if they were on a carnival ride. Luckily, there was cushioning that allowed them to be pushed back comfortably. After a minute or so, the interior of the boat evened out all the pressure and all three could comfortably move again.

        “Chippy, have you spoken at all since we got here? You’d better not still be sad about leaving us.” Niko noticed that Chippy still seemed bothered. She couldn’t remember him saying much at all since they discussed visiting him.

        “Huh? Oh, I guess I am still thinking about that a little. I don’t have much to say though, anyway. You and John have had everything covered.” This wasn’t the Chippy that Niko knew. He had always been kind of quiet, but he always had at least something to contribute.

        “C’mon, Chippy. We’ve been through worse than separation anxiety. Remember how you fought off two-hundred men on a ship? Or how about when I accidentally put you through deadly trials without your powers?” Before John could list off another dangerous encounter, Chippy gave him a confused yet surprised face and cut him off.

        “Those trials were deadly?” John had forgotten that he never told Chippy about the Hamil Faction’s interference in said trials, this was the first time he was hearing about it.

        “Nevermind that, Chippy. What I’m trying to say is that you’ll be fine no matter what happens to you. Even if we have to go away, you’ll make new friends.” Chippy knew that being constantly sad about something that was going to happen one way or another wasn’t good for him, and John was right, he’d likely set up a new life once this was all over with new people to hang out with.

        “Yeah, and you guys said that you’d visit me, right?” Niko then smiled and put her arm around Chippy.

        “Now you’re getting the point! Come on, let’s enjoy the rest of the time we have together instead of wasting it away with sadness.” Chippy decided that that sounded like a good idea. He pushed the thoughts of loneliness far back into his brain and focused on the here and now. After that, the whole group talked and entertained each other for hours. Chippy didn’t feel worried about his mission, the Hamil Faction, the S-Team, the dream figures, nothing. He was going to enjoy himself as much as he could.

        A few hours later, John had slowed the boat down to around forty miles per hour and opened up the roof to air the place out. While he waited to put the roof back down, he brought out his phone and was responding to emails, something he had been slacking on for a few days. Chippy and Niko continued to speak to each other, but John couldn’t hear them, as the wind was moving too fast past them for their voices to carry far.

        “You know, I haven’t seen you get to use your powers much lately, Chippy, and you know how I feel about that.” Chippy knew that Niko was much more supportive of him using his abilities freely than John was, and that she was very interested in seeing them in action.

        “Oh really? What should we do about that, then?” Chippy played along, knowing John couldn’t hear their mischief.

        “You lift things with your mind, right? I’ve always wanted to hang glide, maybe you could make me fly?” Chippy looked back at John, who was still too distracted with his work to focus on what they were doing.

        “Are you sure? What if John sees you flying behind us?” Niko rolled her eyes and then smiled. She climbed up on top of one of the seats and let the wind fly past her, John didn’t notice a thing.

        “I give you special ASI permission to do it.” Niko carefully climbed onto the back of the boat, then jumped off towards the water below. However, before she made contact with the water, she was caught by an invisible force that lifted her up towards the sky. Chippy had focused on her in that instant and pushed her up behind the boat. She flew like a superhero with her fist out in front of her, following closely behind the boat with the assistance of Chippy’s power.

        Well, she followed sort of closely. After that, she slowly began to drift away. The boat was moving just too quickly for her to keep up using Chippy’s power. Chippy could make himself go faster than this, but it was more difficult with other people or objects. It wouldn’t be long before Niko was out of his range, so he had to think of something.

        “Um, John? Could we stop for a little bit?” Chippy got closer to John so that he could hear him while simultaneously making sure that Niko stayed afloat. He could feel it becoming more and more difficult to keep her up as she got farther and farther away.

        “Stop? What, are you feeling—what the?!” John looked back and saw Niko flying in the air, slowly getting farther and farther away. He quickly stopped the boat without warning, causing both himself and Chippy to fall forward. With the sudden movement, Chippy accidentally lost control of Niko and let her drop down into the ocean.

        “I lost control, we need to find her!” John didn’t quite know yet what was going on, but he had a decent guess as to what it might be. They both searched the general area that she fell in, but couldn’t see her anywhere.

        “Where did she go? Chippy, if you drowned Niko I swear—” John was cut off once more as Niko suddenly resurfaced right next to the boat, clinging on to the side of it to keep her up.

        “Boo!” She surprised both Chippy and John, neither of them had expected her to be so closeby.

        “I’m a pretty good swimmer, so I swam underwater back to the boat. Can one of you help me up?” Chippy quickly reached down and took Niko’s hands, lifting her back up onto the boat. She was now soaked head to toe in the salty ocean water, and it dripped down into the boat that they stood in. Luckily, there seemed to be a sort of one-way drain that shoved it back into the ocean below.

        “So, would either of you mind telling me why Niko was flying behind us?” John seemed to be angry at both of them, and it made sense due to their sudden irresponsibility.

        “We got bored and decided to try flying, but I guess it didn’t work out very well…” Chippy took the blame for the trouble, but Niko didn’t want it all to be put on him when she brought it up in the first place.

        “I’m the one that gave him the idea, I should be the one in trouble.” Niko tried her best to put it on herself, since she knew that even if John favored Chippy, punishment for him might be worse than for her.

        “I swear, traveling with you two is like traveling with a couple of kids.” John mumbled to himself before actually scolding them. They reminded him of his own son, back when he had him, anyway.

        “You know how I feel about you using your powers without a good reason, Chippy. Think about that next time you want to make one of your friends fly. As for you, Niko, I’d expect you to be better trained at resisting temptation, even if you’re friends with the subject. Please, my job is already stressful enough, don’t make it harder than it has to be.” John turned back around and pressed a button to begin shutting the roof, he decided it was time to speed up again. Chippy and Niko on the other hand were surprised at how lightly they got off. John must have been super focused on something else right now to not go on one of his long tangents. If Chippy really thought about it, John had gotten less and less strict as their journey had gone on. It seemed that he was letting them get away with more, he wondered why that was.

        “I guess neither of us should have done that, huh?” Chippy attempted to start another conversation with Niko before things got too awkwardly silent.

        “Who cares? It was fun, and we’ve been doing too many depressing things lately to not have a little. John worries too much and you know it. We’re out in the middle of the ocean, nobody’s going to see us.” Niko finished just before the roof above fully closed and the wind stopped providing cover for their voices, 

        “We have about ten hours of this trip left, so let’s try not to do anything else stupid.” John sped the boat up again and they all sunk into their seats for a few moments once more.

        “Wait a second, ten hours? We’ve only been out for two?” Chippy couldn’t believe how short of a time it had been. They had already gotten in trouble once, so he couldn’t imagine what might happen if he had to wait that long.

        “If we want to travel without the risk of the Hamil Faction, it’s going to take longer. Go ahead and try to sleep or something, Time’ll pass faster that way.” Chippy looked out the sunroof of the boat and saw the sun still in the middle of the sky. All the times he had slept before, it was nighttime outside. Plus, it wasn’t that long ago since he had last slept, anyway.

        “How am I supposed to fall asleep when it’s so bright?” Chippy shut his eyes like he would when trying to sleep normally, but it just wasn’t the same.

        “I have an idea! People in militaries around the world have a special method to make themselves fall asleep, maybe it’ll work for you.” Niko fully relaxed her body and prepared to use the strategy. ASI had optional training routines to master them, but she never decided to take them, so she’d have to go off of what she remembered from the articles she had read.

        “First, relax all the muscles in your face, even if it makes your mouth open a little.” Chippy completely relaxed his face, which he had to admit felt nice.

        “Next, exhale and relax your shoulders, but only exhale until it’s comfortable. You can still breathe, but only lightly.” Chippy let all the air out of his lungs, only filling in small amounts at a time. He also let his shoulders drop down, causing him to relax his entire upper body.

        “Now, release any tension you have in your legs and feet, your whole body should be relaxed after this.” Chippy hadn’t really been using his legs all that much, but he made himself extra focused on not doing anything with them.

        “Finally, imagine yourself in a relaxing place for ten seconds. A beach, a forest clearing, in bed, anywhere you’d like.” Chippy imagined himself lying in a sunchair on a beach, just a little in the water so that his limbs could hang down and cool off if he wanted to.

        “You know, Niko, that strategy takes about six weeks of training to actually make it work.” John had actually learned how to do it himself a long time ago, but it took him quite a while to master it.

        “Plus, you didn’t even do it the right way; there’s way more involved in it than that.” John was skeptical of Niko’s optimism of the imperfected strategy, but she seemed confident.

        “I… I honestly didn’t expect it to work that well.” Chippy had fallen asleep, and he had fallen asleep hard. Niko was impressed with his uncanny ability to sleep with little outside help or training, the strategy didn’t even work for her.

        “I guess he must’ve been more tired than he thought.” John was also impressed, but it also slightly concerned him. Chippy wasn’t that lacking in sleep, so why did he pass out so quickly?

        “Whatever works, let’s try and stay quiet for him, he’s had a rough few days.” With all that had happened lately, Niko couldn’t blame Chippy for being stressed. Maybe he was losing sleep over it.

        “A rough life, for that matter.” John looked back out at the open sea ahead of him. This was going to be a long trip.

    Chippy hadn’t fallen asleep for no reason, though. It was as if an emergency connection was trying to be established with him. He wasn’t sleeping like he normally did, he could tell that he was asleep, and everything felt off.

        “Chippy!” Chippy heard a muffled voice call out to him, but only darkness surrounded him. The voice sounded like it was speaking through an insulated funnel. It was quiet and its words were distorted.

        “Who’s there?” Chippy called back out to the voice. It seemed familiar, as if he had spoken to it before.

        “I can’t speak to you well, but you have to listen!” After hearing the voice again, Chippy could tell who it was; it was Zeem.

        “Zeem? Why can’t I see you? Where’s the rest of the base?” Chippy attempted to look around, but he then realized he didn’t have a body to look around this. He himself was just a disembodied voice in the darkness.

        “You have to choose a figure! Something big is coming, and you need their help!” Chippy realized this is what Zeem was trying to say just before the last figure dream, but why was he siding with them?

        “They all want me to pick them though, which one am I supposed to choose?” Chippy awaited Zeem’s response, but it was all silent.

        “Find a way to connect, this doesn’t work anymore!” Chippy at least knew what Zeem meant this time. He still needed to find a way to make himself unconscious in a way where he was just about to wake up, but still remained asleep. After a few seconds, Chippy woke up gasping as if he had just ran a marathon. Dreams that didn’t make as much sense to him always seemed to do that to him. This time, Niko and John didn’t seem as concerned about Chippy, they had gotten used to this by now.

        “Another one of your dreams?” Niko still asked, just to make sure it wasn’t something worse.

        “Yeah, I’m getting closer to figuring them out, though. I need a way to be asleep, but also be about to wake up at the same time. Zeem told me that if I did, he could establish a better connection, whatever that means.” John looked back at Chippy from the driver’s seat again, now confused about the description he had been given.

        “You’re really going to have to give me a rundown of all the dreams you’ve had at some point, I might be able to put some pieces of the puzzle together if I hear it all again.” Chippy looked outside the boat and still didn’t see land, but he could tell that it was definitely much later in the day. While they continued on their way to Mexico, Chippy gave John a description of every dream he had had up to that point, everything from his first vision while he was surrounded by John’s men in the crater to what he had just now. By that time, they were beginning to get near a port, so John pressed a button on the control panel to return the boat to its disguised form; an average fisherman’s boat.

        “It seems to me you have two different series of dreams going on right now, but they’re all connected in some way. Those three figures and giant dog aren’t like anything I’ve ever heard of, unlike the S-Team. I’ll do a bit more digging and see what I can find.” John safely drove the boat into the docking area. Other ASI employees quickly came to tie it up and bring up a lift that it could rest on. John, Chippy, and Niko all got out of the boat and left the employees to do their job.

        “Oh yeah, I’ll also see if I can conjure up a drug that’ll put you in that state that your dreams keep asking for, the almost-woke-up one. Maybe a light dosage of anesthesia? I’ll have to see. Excuse me for a minute, I need to talk to some people.” John waved some employees down and walked towards them, leaving Chippy and Niko alone.

        “He sure trusts us, doesn’t he?” Chippy was surprised that John would just leave them like that after their stunt on the boat. He knew for sure that he was getting special privileges that other subjects didn’t.

        “He gets soft on people he knows for a while, it’s a trait he’s always hated, but I think it’s nice to have a trusting side.” Niko pulled her phone from her pocket and began browsing a social media site, leaving Chippy with nothing to really do. Because of this, he decided he’d explore around the base a little. There was no harm in that, right? Chippy began to walk and look at the sights the base had to share. This one somehow seemed different from the other bases; it was more welcoming, in a way. The paint on it, while old, was a brighter, more vibrant color than the others. It was a light shade of blue, a color that Chippy liked. The base was disguised as a boat club, with many people keeping their own water vehicles stored away near the building. All of the surrounding equipment also seemed newer and gave off more of a happy aura, it was as if the base was made specially for some reason.

        “Hey, hey you, Americano.” Chippy turned and saw someone peeking out from an alleyway next to the base, right between it and a building beside it. They wore a long, funny-looking coat and a hat that hid his face away. Chippy was intrigued by his mysterious appearance, and decided to approach him. He noticed that his coat said ASI in small print near the neck, he must’ve been affiliated with them.

        “Hi, who are you?” Chippy could see the man smile under his hat, he wondered what was making him so happy.

        “You want to have a good time?” The man spoke quickly and quietly, making Chippy even more curious as to what he had to offer.

        “I’m always up for a good time! What’re we gonna do?” The man reached into his coat and pulled something out of it. Chippy couldn’t recognize what exactly it was, but it looked to be a device similar to a syringe and had a red liquid in it.

        “What am I supposed to do with that?” Chippy gazed at the red syringe and wondered just what it may contain.

        “Just take it, the first one’s on the house. Just push it into your skin and pump the stuff in.” Chippy looked a little closer at the object, then finally took it from the man. Chippy thought it sounded interesting, so he brought the syringe to his arm and pushed it against his skin.

        “Not here, though! Do it when I’m not around, and when you’re not out in public. Magic times like these… Er, shouldn’t be shared with others, you’ll make them jealous.” The man seemed very hesitant for Chippy to take the syringe now, so he put it back in his pocket for later use.

        “Oh, that makes sense. Thanks!” Chippy waved goodbye and walked away from the mysterious man. Chippy liked him, the world needed more people that were just out to make others happy.

        “Come back any time!” The man creeped back into the alleyway from which he came, hopefully to find more people to share his joy with.

        Chippy saw Niko and John standing together, looking around for him, so he ran to them before they got too worried.

        “Chippy, where’d you go? One second I’m talking to you, and then the next you disappear off on me.” Chippy had thought Niko was finished talking, he was sorry that he had been so rude as to just leave mid-conversation.

        “Sorry about that, I thought you were done. I made a friend, though! He seemed like a pretty happy guy.” John and Niko assumed that Chippy was talking about some random employee he had met, so they dismissed it pretty quickly.

        “That’s nice, Chippy. What was his name?” The three began walking towards the main doors of the base as Chippy described his encounter, but he altered it so that he never got the syringe. He remembered the man saying that others would become jealous of him if anyone saw him, so he assumed it applied to telling others as well.

        “He sounds like a nice guy. Strange that you didn’t get a name, though.” Niko nearly bumped into John once he suddenly stopped before the doors of the base. It seemed like he was thinking about something, but what?

        “You can do this, John. It happened five years ago.” John muttered to himself as he finally opened the door to the base. He slowly walked to the staircase leading down to the undisguised part of it, then put in his special keycard to unlock the door. Chippy and Niko watched as he stared down the spiral of stairs that led to the rest of the base below. He was acting strangely, but Chippy wasn’t sure why.

        “Let’s go.” John slowly began descending the stairs, reliving the painful past he had experienced here just a few years ago. He knew that he had to put it behind him, but every time he thought about what had happened, the mental wound became fresh again.

        “John, is something the matter?” Chippy noticed that John kept moving slower and slower as they got closer to the bottom of the stairs. He had already noticed him looking solemn and sad-looking outside of the base, but it was becoming more prominent now.

        “It’s nothing, just some memories of the past.” John finally reached the bottom of the stairs and took another deep breath before opening the doors. As soon as Chippy could see through them, he knew that this base was different from all the rest. The walls had a unique, purple, floral pattern to them, making the base even more friendly than the outside of it suggested. The floral pattern was also surrounded by a nice white color, unlike the medium gray that the rest of the bases had. The doors lead immediately into the underground hangar area like all the other bases, but it was almost unrecognizable just due to the new paint. The floor was also much nicer, and instead of being made of more gray paint that was peeling away, it had been kept solid all throughout and was a light tan color. For whatever reason, this base was much different from all the rest.

        “I… I need a moment. You two know where the living quarters are, go find them.” John quickly walked through the doors and left Chippy and Niko to their own devices. It wasn’t uncommon for John to talk to some other people nearby and leave them, but it was certainly odd for him to just run off and leave them with instructions.

        “Why’s he acting so strange?” Chippy and Niko made their way into the decorated hangar and made their way towards the living quarters, but Chippy couldn’t help but wonder what was making John act in such a way.

        “Are you joking? No, he hasn’t kept that from you, has he?” Niko knew that this wasn’t something that John liked to discuss, but it was something that everyone in ASI knew about.

        “Kept what from me?” Niko couldn’t believe that John was even able to hide it for this long. She thought that at least another employee would have told Chippy by now, if not John himself.

        “This is the base where the incident of ‘01 happened, the place where John lost his family.” Chippy’s eyes went wide when he heard this. He had seen the pictures of John with his family in the various living quarters he had stayed in, and he had always wondered how John had time to see them, but he could see now that the reason John had time was because there was nobody to see anymore.

        “What happened to them? I thought ASI bases were some of the most secure places ever.” Chippy felt slightly rude asking, but if Niko was acting like it was such common knowledge, he felt like he had a right to know.

        “I wasn’t there myself, but this is the story that settled into place after all the rumors stopped going around.” Niko held the door open to the living quarters for Chippy, who promptly thanked her and awaited her story.

        “John’s youngest son had a few powers not too different from yours, Chippy. If I remember right, he was super strong and quite speedy to boot. They say he was able to lift ten-pound weights before he was even a year old. Back at that time, John was still on his pure containment policy; which meant that every subject, no matter how harmless, would be contained for life.” Niko and Chippy then sat down on the couch for the rest of the story, it wouldn’t be a short one.

        “John couldn’t bear to contain his own son, though, so he started slowly releasing subjects that he believed could hide whatever was different about them. His son made him see that even if something was different, it wasn’t always all bad.” Niko looked up a little, trying to remember some of the smaller details of the story. It had been a while since she had heard or recalled it.

        “This base was something special he had prepared for his family, a place where they could meet up even while he was still busy with ASI, that’s why all of the walls are so nice-looking. Back in 2001, they decided to meet up here for a weekend together like they would any other time. His wife and both of his sons always looked forward to spending time with him since they were so busy.” Chippy looked around at the living quarters, and it was different, too. It was full of different keepsakes and had more pictures than the other bases. It made it feel like it was an actual home, not a military-esque base.

        “However, someone outside of ASI found out about the plans they had to meet up here, and they ‘intercepted’ them. A group of men armed to the teeth with different weapons broke into the base, they were searching for John’s son with powers so they could use him. No matter what we fired back at them, though, it seemed like they couldn’t be hurt. We still don’t know what kind of technology they used to break in, and we’ve been searching for them ever since.” Chippy imagined how scary it must have been for John’s family then. These bases were supposed to be the most secure places on earth, and people broke in with ease just so that they could steal one of them away. He also found it terrifying that ASI technology wasn’t hurting them at all. Just a normal gun should put someone in critical condition, right?

        “They said that all of them were wearing masks with long-eyed smiley faces, sort of like the equal sign and parenthesis emoticon, assuming you know what that looks like. Here, lemme show you.” Niko brought out her phone and tapped on a browser, then typed “=)” into the search bar.

        “Weird, I wonder why they’d all wear masks like that. It shouldn’t matter what they wear, right?” Niko shrugged her shoulders, she didn’t know either.

        “Anyway, John and his wife were the last line of defense against the intruders, but neither of them lasted long. John’s wife was killed and he was put into critical condition after they threw him against a wall. After that, his older son came out of his hiding spot to defend his younger brother, but he was no match for the people after him, and they shot him where he stood.” Chippy couldn’t imagine the heartache John must have felt in that moment. Being helpless and watching his family die off one by one must have been a horrible sight.

        “Then, since the older brother revealed his spot, those men searched there for the younger brother and found him there. They picked him up and then left the base with him, making sure to shield him from any bullets that might accidentally hit him. Once they left, nobody could figure out where they went, and John never knew what happened to his other son. He felt like it was his fault for not containing him like other subjects, which would have kept him safe long enough for them to get heavier artillery to take the men down.” Chippy exhaled after Niko finished her story, he never knew that John had been through something so horrible. It was no wonder that he was so strict on Chippy all the time on using his powers in public, he didn’t want the same thing to happen to him.

        “Somehow, he’s managed to overcome it for the most part, though. I know of at least eighty subjects that he’s personally helped in the five years since that happened. It definitely took a toll on him, though. I think it’s why he’s retiring now, he just can’t take much more of this.” Niko never really liked to tell the tale of what had happened, but she figured that Chippy should know, especially after knowing John for so long.

        “I can’t believe that happened… I’d like to try and lift his spirits, but I’m afraid I’d make it worse.” Niko shook her head, Chippy was dead wrong.

        “Chippy, I’ve seen it myself, John sees his own son in you. Even if you have some powers that he didn't have, some of the ones that you do have and your personality types are very similar. This journey that John’s gotten to go on has almost been like seeing his son again, even if he knows you’re just a random subject. You’ve helped him cope and let him know that things’ll be okay with your innocent and nonchalant attitude. You’ve helped more already than anyone else has been able to up until now.” Chippy didn’t know what John’s son was like, but if he truly was similar to him, he was happy to know that he had been helping John out.

        Speaking of the devil, John suddenly yet slowly opened the main door. Chippy looked up at him and could see that his eyes had gotten puffy and there seemed to be some moisture around them. Had he been gone this entire time just to cry?

        “I’m sorry, it appears we’ll be spending the day here. I’m going to be holding a staff meeting about the Hamil Faction, so I’ll probably be gone for a while. You two behave yourselves, I don’t need any more stress.” John closed the door again and Chippy could hear him walk off. In reality, John didn’t need to hold a meeting of any sort. The Hamil Faction was already being carefully watched for at this base, and he knew that the rest of the institution was searching for members and clues about them to shut them down for good; however, he needed something to distract him from what he had lived through here before he began crying like a baby once more.

        “Well, I’m gonna go to the guest bedroom. I’ve got a few things I need to do on my phone, so it’d be best if I just got them out of the way.” Niko got up and headed for the guest bedroom that she usually slept in, leaving Chippy alone. He thought for a while about John’s misfortune, and just how horrible it had to have been. Even if he was helping John by being similar to his son, he still wished there was some way for him to help. In reality, though, there wasn’t anything for him to do.

    “I guess if I don’t have anything else to do, I’ll try out that syringe.” Chippy reached into his pocket and pulled the syringe out. He analyzed it for a few seconds before pressing it against his skin, pushing down on the top, and letting the liquid flow into him.

        “That didn’t feel good…” Chippy didn’t really like the feel of the needle, but maybe that wasn’t the fun part. He sat on the couch, anxiously waiting for the fun to start.

        “Chippy?” Chippy heard a voice call for him from down the hall. It sounded like it came from the guest bedroom, which was odd. Why would Niko call for him after she just left?

        “What is it?” Chippy got up and felt unsteady. It was like he was trying to stand on one foot, but he definitely had both planted on the ground. He felt dizzy as well, the walls, floor, and ceiling were almost spinning as if he were in a carousel.

        “What’s going on?” Chippy slurred his words together, as he was suddenly speaking very quickly and anxiously. Taking one step felt like he had been spun around twelve times before with the amount of precision and balance he had to maintain. Was this the syringe’s fault? If so, it wasn’t very fun.

        “Chippy!” The voice became louder and had a sense of urgency to it. Chippy attempted to pick up his pace, but he quickly realized that trying to go much faster would likely result in him falling over.

        “Who’s there?” Chippy stumbled his way into the back hallway, then to the guest bedroom door. He tried sloppily to grab the door handle, but it seemed to evade him. In fact, the door handle appeared to shrink down to the size of an ant.

        “How’d you get so small Mr. Handle?” Chippy continued trying to open the door, but the handle was just too small for him to use, even with just two fingers. He could feel his heart starting to beat faster, as if something bad would happen if he didn’t get it open.

        Niko heard Chippy outside her door, and it sounded like he was talking to himself. She also noticed the door handle moving slightly, as if he were trying to get in.

        “Chippy, are you alright out there?” Niko put her phone down on her bed and walked to the door, listening for Chippy to say anything else.

        “Who’s in there? Why’s your door handle so tiny?” Niko stepped back, confused. Chippy was slurring his words together in a frenzy, as if he was excited or nervous… maybe both.

        “There isn’t anything he could have gotten into… Chippy?” Niko grabbed her door handle and opened the door up, revealing Chippy unsteadily standing outside her door. She wasn’t sure what he had done to himself, but it definitely wasn’t something good.

* * *

        “You’re not Niko!” Chippy looked at the woman standing in front of him. He knew he recognized her from somewhere, but where?

        “I’m Tadita, do you recognize that name?” Chippy searched through his currently foggy brain to remember where he had heard that name. While he was thinking, he noticed that Tadita was the only perfectly clear thing in his vision. Everything else was either discolored or moving around in some odd way.

        “Hey… Aren’t you one of those people from the S-Team? I thought you were all dead?” Now Chippy for sure knew that something was off. All of the people on the S-Team were supposed to be reduced to skeletons, so how could one of them be standing in front of him right now?

        Niko waved her hand in front of Chippy’s face, but he seemed to be in some kind of odd trance. He seemed to be speaking nonsense to somebody who wasn’t there.

        “He’s talking about the S-Team again… He had to have eaten something wrong, that’s the only thing that I can think of. This isn’t like his other dreams or visions, either. He usually goes all limp for those.” Niko walked back to her bed and picked up her phone, making sure to keep a careful eye on Chippy. She dialed in John’s number and waited for him to pick up.

        “What is it?” Niko knew John probably didn’t want to be bothered right now by the tone of his voice, but she thought that the current situation may trump that.

        “Hey, I think Chippy may have gotten into some. Uh, bad food or something? He’s acting weird and talking to people who aren’t here, I’d appreciate it if you could come help me.” John tried to think of anything that Chippy could have eaten, but he had called and had the room cleared before they got there. He wasn’t dumb enough to get into cleaner or something, was he?

        “Alright, I’ll be right over.” John hung up the phone and began making his way towards the living quarters. He hadn’t actually gone to any meetings, and instead aimlessly wandered around the base, checking out the subjects that had been captured there.

        “He couldn’t choose when I’m right in front of him to act like this, could he?” John muttered to himself as he continued his walk back.

* * *

        “That’s right, I’m Tadita! I’m not exactly sure of how you did it, but you’ve managed to reach a state where you’re almost awake, yet still partially asleep. This is the easiest way for us to reach you, Chippy, and so we will.” The spinning walls around Chippy suddenly cracked and then shattered all the way. It was similar to how things would be destroyed in his dreams, leaving black voids behind afterwards, but it felt more real this time.

        He watched as Tadita lifted up into the air, then watched as the five other members of the S-Team slowly faded into his vision. Was this it? Was he finally about to figure everything out about them?

        “He certainly doesn’t look good.” John had made it back to the living quarters, and thanks to the distraction Chippy was providing, was able to get over his emotions for the time being.

        “Should we take him to the medbay?” Niko touched Chippy’s hand, then his arm limply swung in the air. He would mutter some nonsensical words from time to time, but he wasn’t moving around anymore.

        “Yeah, let’s get him over there.” John put one of Chippy’s arms over his shoulder, then Niko did the same. They guided him out of the room, out of the living quarters, and out of the hangar until they eventually made it to the medical area.

        “Hey, we’ve got a subject here who isn’t acting quite right. Ignore your normal subject safety procedures for this one, he’s safe.” John explained the situation to a doctor that was relaxing in a chair in the reception area. He sometimes envied the doctors of the bases, most of the time they just sat there and waited for something to happen the entire day, and unless there was an injured soldier or a subject that needed to be operated on, they got paid for it. He knew it had to be boring, but being paid to do nothing sounded like a good deal to him.

        “Hm? Oh, come right this way, then.” The doctor led John, Niko and their mock Weekend at Bernie’s setup to a basic checkup room. They then sat Chippy down on the patient chair and let the doctor do his work.

        “Alright. Chippy, was it? Can you tell me how many fingers I’m holding up?” The doctor put up seven fingers, but Chippy blankly stared at them and said nothing.

        “He’s not responsive, doc.” John observed Chippy himself, and he didn’t even blink. He definitely wouldn’t be counting any fingers.

        “I see… Here, let me do this.” The doctor took a small device off the counter next to him and turned it on. A thin ray of light shot out of it, then he pointed it into Chippy’s eyes. They dilated quickly, letting the doctor know that Chippy wasn’t in any serious danger.

        “Huh… I’m gonna take some blood and have it tested, see if he has anything wrong internally.” The doctor opened a cabinet right above the counter and grabbed a needle. He stuck it into Chippy’s arm and drew blood into it, then took it out and dabbed his arm off. He put a bandage on it, just to be safe, then went out the door with the blood.

        “It shouldn’t take too long, I’m sure you two more than anyone know how quickly ASI technology can speed things up.” The doctor walked off and left the two alone, wondering what could be wrong with Chippy.

        “So you said he was talking to people who weren’t there at first?” John went on to ask Niko questions about what she had seen Chippy do and say. While he wasn’t confident in this assumption, he was questioning if this may be another one of his visions, just a more extreme one.

* * *

        Chippy looked at all of the six members of the S-Team floating before him. They were almost angelic, in a way. Chippy awaited to hear what they would say.

        “You’ve finally found a way to communicate with us, Chippy. I applaud you on that.” Zeem, the leader, was the first one to speak.

        “Thank you, but it was more of a chance encounter, I’d say.” Chippy was glad he met the guy that gave him the syringe. Without him, he may have never been able to meet all of the S-Team.

        “No matter how you got it, I’m so glad you can finally see all of us, or all of you, I should say.” Ghusun seemed glad to meet Chippy, but now’s the part where Chippy got confused. Luckily for him, he could ask any questions he wanted to now.

        “What do you mean by all of me? I know we’re all connected in some way, but how?” Chippy was excited to finally learn about his history, it was the secondary goal of his journey, and he’d be happy to tick it off the list. Minta then decided she would be the one to tell him his history by speaking before anyone else could.

        “We are you, you are us. You’re a combination of—” Before she could finish her sentence, Chippy felt himself returning to the real world. All of the black void around him began patching together into what looked like a doctor’s office. Had the syringe’s effects worn off already?

        “No, no, no! Stay with me, guys! What were you about to say? Tell me!”

* * *

        “This should fix him right up. The results detected an excess of hallucinogenic drugs in his blood, and I think I know how they got there. Someone’s been taking the blood of a subject who can affect dreams and selling it as a hallucinogen around here lately. My best guess is he found the guy that's been doing it somewhere and got some from him. You’ll have to ask him about it later.” The doctor injected some medicine into Chippy to cancel out the effect of the blood, then watched for signs of movement from his patient.

        “No, no, no! What happened? Where’d they go?” Chippy began frantically looking around for the S-Team, but they were nowhere to be seen. The only people he could see were John, Niko, and a doctor stabbing him with a needle.

        “John, I have to go meet the syringe guy that was outside! I was just about to figure out my history with the S-Team, I just need a few more minutes!” John stood up and put his hands out in front of him, attempting to subdue Chippy’s freak-out

        “Calm down, Chippy. You were being affected by another subject’s blood that an employee who needs to be fired off the street gave you. If any shady-looking people offer you things again, don’t take it. You’re lucky to be alive.” Chippy knew John wouldn’t lie to him, but it was just like one of his visions. It was so hard for him to believe that they weren’t like the others.

        “But—but it was just like my other dreams and visions! That had to be them!” Chippy was adamant in his belief that he was about to figure everything out, but John was adamant that he had been affected by a subject and it made him see things.

        “You can all leave now, I’ve cleaned the shot.” Both John and Chippy realized they were both still in a doctor’s office, and were probably overstaying their welcome.

        “Oh, I’m terribly sorry. Thanks for your help.” John grabbed onto Chippy’s wrist and led him out of the room. Niko followed behind, not wanting to make matters any worse.

        “I’m sorry about them, they tend to have conflicting ideas.” Niko apologized to the doctor for both John and Chippy as she headed out, not wanting his day to be soured by the two arguing men.

        “That’s okay, I still get paid at the end of the day.” The doctor smiled and began reviewing some papers he had in his hand, so Niko left and caught up with John and Chippy.

        “I swear, John! I know what I saw, I was just about to figure out who the S-Team was! You’d like to know that, wouldn’t you?” When Niko caught back up, she was instantly greeted by John and Chippy’s continuing back and forth argument. While she was all for Chippy figuring out who he was and using his powers, she wasn’t sure if something else’s blood was the right way to do it.

        “I’d love to know who they were, but I don’t want you using a deadly subject! It’s proven to be dangerous, it isn’t going to reveal your past to you!” John continued to drag Chippy by the arm back to the living quarters, but he didn’t really know why he was. Where else did Chippy have to go besides where he was taking him?

        “Can both of you stop arguing about it? What’s done is done, there’s no point in getting angry about something you can’t change.” Niko was already tired of hearing the two bicker, they were like an old couple disagreeing on something.

        “Niko, you’re right. It’s unprofessional of both of us to keep arguing. Chippy, we have one day before we meet with the final world leader, then we’re finished entirely. Let’s not spend our time being angry at each other.” John released Chippy’s wrist and Chippy pulled his arm away. He wanted to leave, but he didn’t know where to go.

        “Now listen, I still have yet to set up this meeting with the president. Their phone line seems to be broken, so I’m having to fly to the National Palace to arrange one. I know the syringe wasn’t your fault, but please don’t do anything dumb while I’m out. You’ve started to act up lately, don’t make me regret trusting you. Niko, you’re responsible for making sure he doesn’t do anything dumb.” After John had led Chippy back to the living quarters, he walked away once more. Chippy couldn’t tell if he was being truthful about having to set up a meeting this time or if he just didn’t want to be in such an emotional place. Regardless of that, though, this gave Chippy a prime opportunity to find the syringe man.

        “Hey, Niko…” Chippy grabbed Niko’s attention before they even entered the living quarters. He wanted to do this as fast as he could so John wouldn’t be able to find out.

        “What?” Niko paused and let go of the doorknob, what could Chippy need now?

        “I know that you believe in all of the more out-there kinds of things I say, don’t you think that this whole blood thing could be true?” Niko sighed and opened the door, that was a bad sign.

        “That subject can cause hallucinations like what you’ve described, I really don’t know what to believe.” Niko looked down as she entered the quarters. She didn’t want to give in, but Chippy was going to be persistent.

        “Niko, I fell from space! Anything could be possible, we have to try. Come on, can’t we just take a quick trip outside? John’ll never know.” Niko had to admit that she was at least interested to see if he had the same experience twice, but she could get into serious trouble if she were caught.

        “I don’t know, Chippy. This could go really badly.” Chippy grinned and put his fist to his chest, mimicking a character he had seen on TV once.

        “You can trust that things will be just fine. I’ll take all the blame for it if John catches us, so you don’t have to worry at all.” Niko sighed again and walked right back out the door she had just walked in. Chippy knew he had her now.

        “Fine, let’s go find that guy.” Chippy balled his fist in a short victory celebration and then led the way out of the base.

        “Hey, aren’t you two supposed to be with John?” One of the door guards questioned the two at the exit of the building, but they had been prepared for that.

        “I’ve been traveling with John and Chippy almost since this started, I think I’m qualified to take him for a walk.” Niko knew that ASI had been cracking down on security due to the Hamil Faction, but she had gotten to be fairly well-known since she had been so important to this mission.

        “I guess you’re right, go ahead.” The guard let the two leave the building, then their search for the shady man began.

        “Last time I saw him, he was between these two buildings. He might still be somewhere nearby.” Chippy and Niko went to the side of a nearby building and looked into the alleyway for the man. Unfortunately, they didn’t see anyone.

        After looking around a few more alleyways, Chippy felt someone tap on his shoulder. He turned around and saw the shady man he had been looking for right behind him. Niko turned around and saw him for herself; she didn’t like the look of the guy.

        “Hey, we were just looking for you! Can I have another one of those syringes, please? It’s kind of a long story.” The shady man squinted at Chippy and paused for a moment before he spoke.

        “Hey, amigo. Me and my boys did some digging and it turns out you’re an anomalous subject yourself; you didn’t tell me that. I can’t be providing my services to you; that’d be bad for my business, you know? Though, John may pay me well if I catch something outside of containment…” Chippy noticed more people gathering around in his peripheral vision, about three total from what he could see. This wasn’t going well.

        “All we want is another syringe, I can assure you that Chippy won’t hurt anyone.” Niko tried to defuse the situation, but all of the people surrounding them began to draw weapons out. Chippy knew that he had a good fighting ability, but he was in an enclosed space again, and he was entirely surrounded as well. He did better when all of his enemies were in front of him and he was in an open space.

        “Chippy, your friend doesn’t seem too happy to see you.” Niko backed up against Chippy so that they could watch each other’s back. She could tell things were about to get ugly. Weirdly, Chippy felt a strange tickle in his feet. Was it some kind of nervous reaction? No matter, that wasn’t important now.

        “I’m sorry, It’s time to go.” The man drew his own gun and shot a bullet at Chippy. He was able to use his psychic powers to stop it before it could hit him, then sent the bullet hurdling back at his assailant, crippling him by hitting him in the leg. He knew though that since he shot, there would be plenty more oncoming.

        Or, there were supposed to be more. In fact, he knew for sure that there were more; he heard more gunshots fired from behind him and he knew that he couldn’t use his telekinesis on a fast-moving object he couldn’t see.

        “Chippy, you might wanna take a look at this.” Chippy separated from Niko’s back and turned around, curious as to the reason that they weren’t shooting him.

        When he did turn around, he realized that there was a much bigger problem at hand than a couple of bad ASI employees.

        “Do… Do you think a subject somehow got loose?” Chippy saw large vines growing out of the cracks between the cement. They had constricted the dealers and caused them to pass out due to lack of oxygen. They dropped them down to the ground without care for their safety, then pointed towards Chippy and Niko.

        “That’s the only explanation. Chippy, you’re about to assist in a capture.” Niko got into a fighting stance and reviewed her training in her head. She was supposed to have a gun with her while taking a subject with her, but she didn’t think that she’d need one with Chippy. Regardless, she wished she had one now.

        “Let me handle it, I’ve got more tools at my disposal.” Chippy rolled up his sleeves and prepared for an epic brawl between him and whatever this plant thing was. The vines had to be at least a foot thick each, and they destroyed the concrete under them even further than it already was just by growing out of it. These things couldn’t be left to their own devices.

        Chippy jumped at the vines and lunged forward to see if he could simply tackle them. To his surprise, they didn’t move out of his way. They just stood there and let Chippy knock them over. He began to punch the vines, which began to tear them apart, but something seemed off. Why would they just let him attack them?

        “Be careful, Chippy! They might be planning something!” Niko remained vigilant for any movement, just in case it was attempting a surprise attack.

        “What’s going on here? I want out, man! I want out!” The ASI employee tried to crawl away, but he wasn’t making it very far. The bullet had hit him square in his shin, making his leg completely unusable.

        “We’re trying to figure it out, just stay there!” After Chippy called out to the dealer, Niko had to jump back from the vine; it had finally made its next move. It grew long enough to go over her head and land in another spot of dirt right past her. A new vine grew out and yanked the main drug dealer off the ground, not caring at all if he was hurting or not.

        “This thing’s strong!” Niko jumped upwards and grabbed the vine segment that had grown above her. She began to rip parts of it out, but it still stood strong.

        “Wait a second, stop attacking it.” Chippy halted Niko’s assault and got off of the vine himself. He looked at the part of it that was now holding the main drug dealer up in the air, and it seemed to look right back at him. He put his hand out in front of him, then slowly brought it towards his chest. The vine moved along with his hand, bringing the dealer to him; it was as if he was commanding the plant… Was he?

        “Am… Am I controlling it?” Chippy slowly moved his hand in other directions, and the vine followed every movement he made. He noticed that he could feel the same sort of strain in his head as when he used his telekinesis, but to a slightly lesser extent. Was this a new power that he was discovering this far into his journey?

        “Hey, listen man! You can have all the syringes you want! Just tell this thing to put me down, okay?” The dealer pleaded with Chippy for mercy, but Chippy was too busy experimenting to listen.

        “Can you grow other things?” Niko was curious to see if he had full control over this ability or if he could only control what he had already made.

        “Let’s see here…” Chippy didn’t know how to grow things, he had just done it as a sort of instinctual reaction to danger. He wasn’t sure if he could control it or not, but he tried anyway. He thought about growing a small bush out of the cracks in the ground. Oddly enough, he felt a strange tingle in his feet, then watched a bush sprout up before him. It was a little deformed and warped, but it proved to him that he was the one controlling all this.

        “This must be the last power of the S-Team! I had five of them before now, so this is the final, sixth one. Chippy lifted up his foot to check why he felt such a weird sensation when he grew the bush. If he remembered correctly, he felt the same thing just before the vines grew, but he didn’t think anything of it at the time. He noticed that there were small holes in his shoe, so he took it off and saw the same holes in his sock. He took that off too and saw a pretty disturbing sight. The holes went up into his feet, deep enough so that he couldn’t see an end to them.

        “Niko, take a look at this.” Chippy counted two holes, one for the vines and one for the bush. Did this mean that… Chippy thought about growing another bush, and a third hole appeared in his foot. A seed rocketed out of it at incredible speeds, launching into the air and ending up somewhere that Chippy couldn’t see.

        “Did that just come out of your foot?” Niko saw the seed blast into the horizon and was immediately intrigued by this newfound ability. She thought about all the different ways it could be harnessed in a variety of situations. 

        “Please, let me go, man! I’ll go straight, I promise!” Chippy looked back at the employee, who was struggling to get free from the grasp of the vines. He thought about how to continue with the situation at hand; since the employee had now been injured by Chippy, it would be dangerous to let him go. What if he told someone?

        “Er, you have to promise to never tell anyone what you saw here today. Okay?” Chippy chose his words very carefully. He didn’t want to actually keep this guy in his hands, or else he’d have a lot to explain to John. He didn’t want him to go out telling the rest of ASI about him, though, either.

        “Mis labios están sellados, mis amigos! No me lastimes!” The employee began speaking in terms that Chippy didn’t understand. It seemed that his fear was causing him to speak in the language he knew best.

        “Niko, do you know what he said?” Chippy had a lot of abilities, but knowing other languages wasn’t one of them.
        “Something about keeping quiet. I don’t think we need to worry about him.” Chippy pictured the vines releasing the man, and so they did. He was dropped to the ground and Chippy walked up to him with one last request.

        “So, do you have any more of those syringes?” The dealer quickly nodded and reached into his pocket. He brought out the syringe that Chippy had longed so much for for around thirty minutes, then held his hand out and offered the shot to Chippy, who gladly took it.

        “Your friends aren’t dead, so uh, just try to wake them up. We can’t really stick around to help, so see ya!” Niko knew that they needed to get out of there before more of the employee’s friends showed up, so she quickly departed from her “friend” and led Chippy away from him.

    “Hurry and take it now, we don’t have any time to spare.” Niko didn’t know when John would be back, but it wouldn’t be too long from now. Since he was the leader of ASI, he didn’t have to wait in the same lines and go through the same processes as everyone else.
        “Alright, in it goes.” Chippy then pushed the syringe into his arm and let it flow in once more. He and Niko picked up their pace to get back into the base so that they could get in before the effects made themselves apparent. Niko quickly greeted the guard for both herself and Chippy once they returned, as he was already becoming a little ecstatic. They hurriedly made their way through the disguised bit of the base and into the underground segment. Chippy was almost using his super speed by the time they reached the hangar, so they had begun to draw the attention of other people in there. Before it could get any worse, they ran to the other side of the hangar, flung the door to the living quarters open, then slammed it shut.

        “Do you think they’re okay?” A pilot spoke to a coworker about the two people they saw dashing through the hangar, it seemed like something was wrong.

        “It’ll probably be fine, they’re allowed in there.” The coworker dismissed the two as just having free time and being happy about it. If the subject started destroying the base and killing people, he’d deal with it then.

* * *

        Niko sat Chippy down on the couch and waited for him to fully go under the effects of the blood. This time, the hallucinations began much quicker for Chippy. The walls began breaking away again and the black void surrounded him once more; he was fully prepared to hear all about his past. He watched as the six members of the S-Team appeared before him one by one. First Ghusun, then Minta, then Tadita, then Flavio, then Yasunari, and finally Zeem.

“Welcome back, you didn’t let me finish.” Minta had her hands on her hips and looked slightly irritated with Chippy. He’d be angry too if he was trying to explain a person’s origin and they just left.

        “Sorry, my friends thought the syringe was a bad thing and ended this all early, you guys can say whatever you need to now.” Chippy hoped that Niko would be able to stall long enough in case John came back early; he didn’t want to push his luck by doing this a third time.

        “You’ve done great research into us up to this point. You see, we were originally able to contact you while you were still conscious, while your mind was new. After that, it began to get stronger as it developed and became accustomed to this world, so we resorted to using your dreams to reach you more than your conscious visions. Your brain kept shutting us off more and more, though, so you needed to find a way to open it up so that we could get to you, hence the need for the blood.” Flavio explained why they had been having so much trouble contacting him, and it all started to make more sense to Chippy. He was glad that they could finally answer his questions clearly for him now.

        “As Minta was saying before, you are us, Chippy. You see, long ago, we were members of a superhero team that I’m sure you know of, the S-Team. Turns out though, even though we were all strong and could take out nearly any enemy, there was one that bested us.” Tadita became quiet and offered for someone else to tell the story. It seemed to bring her pain.

        “His name was Rezog, and he was a beast of a foe, quite literally. Rumor has it that he was the very creature that made the universe in the first place. His goal was to destroy everyone that could stand in the way of what he wanted to do, which was to reset the universe just because he was bored of it. Stupid goal, right?” Yasunari continued the story for Tadita, but then let someone else speak for him, so Ghusun did.

        “Anyway, we had gathered a massive array of superheroes, villains, and other strong creatures to fight against him to stop him from doing that. We had everything from us, to old enemies, to even that deity’s own sons. The fight had to have at least lasted a few hours, but that oversized mutt managed to overpower all of us in the end.” Once Chippy heard that Rezog was a dog, he instantly began to connect the dots.

        “Wait, have I been seeing Rezog in my dreams? The giant dog that can talk?” If Chippy had been dreaming about the supposed creator of the universe, he’d be a little more nervous the next time he saw him.

        “That’d be him. He managed to reset the universe, destroying everything in it, but his sons were able to intervene with one thing. They sunk all of the power they had inherited from their father into our bodies, so that they could survive the reset and not be erased. They hoped that we would come back to life in the next universe, and be able to find a way to stop Rezog before he inevitably tries his reset again. Last time, he was weakened from our fight and a lot of things ended up the same instead of becoming the interesting world he had hoped for, so the same sort of Earth formed and had perfect conditions for the physical forms of our souls.” Minta finished her part of the story, then passed it onto the leader himself, Zeem. It seemed he was going to tell Chippy the rest of what he needed to know.

        “Our mortal bodies couldn’t survive the reset, however, and were reduced to skeletons. Even the skeletons only remained because of the power that Rezog’s son infused into our bodies. Our souls, though, due to the strange meddling of his sons, all came together and became one soul. Well, almost; we’ve refused to fully come together until we could tell you everything you need to know, and instead just inhabited the same body. After this vision, our souls will fully fuse into one, and we will no longer exist. It will be a soul that has all of our abilities, and is able to use all of them to their full extent. That soul will be yours, Chippy.” Chippy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He originally thought that he was a descendant of the S-Team, but his body contained their very souls? His head began to hurt trying to process it all.

        “His sons are the three figures you’ve been dreaming about. They’ve been searching for suitable hosts that they can sap energy from so that they can go against their father once more. They used it all up in that great battle, so they need someone with an excess in order to get it all back. You, Chippy, having a soul with the power of six, and having the energy to use all of our powers… Well, it makes you a perfect candidate. You need to touch one of the figures to allow it into your body, they’re too weak to force their way into you from that battle so long ago, so you have to let them in willingly.” Chippy thought about all the times the figures had tried to attach to them and he refused them entry. It wasn’t his fault, though. They never tried to explain anything like the S-Team was.

        “Once whichever son you choose drains enough energy over time to be restored to their original strength, they will leave you and go out on their own mission. They will find Rezog before he can restore his own power and defeat him once and for all. We don’t know what journeys you may go on once you do choose one of them, but we hope it won’t interfere with the normal life that you’ve strived for.” Chippy now felt sort of bad for wanting a normal life. If he had the powers to help defeat Rezog, was he in the right for wanting that?

        “We can sense your emotions, y’know. Don’t feel bad about wanting to live normally! That’s what a lot of us wanted, too, back when we were alive. You’ve done plenty already just by agreeing to let one of them have your energy. Just make sure to keep yourself safe, or else they won’t have anybody to take energy from!” Yasunari encouraged Chippy. He was certainly the carefree, outgoing member of the group.

        “Thank you. This is just all so sudden, and it’s a ton to take in, too. I’m not sure how to feel about all of it.” Chippy crossed his arms and thought over everything he had just heard. Past universes, godlike deities, and all kinds of other complicated subjects were being shoved down his throat, and he had to swallow it all. Zeem seemed to be ready to move on, however. Chippy would have to think later.

        “While we have the time, we should let you know a little more about each of us. It’s only natural that you should know who makes you. I’ll begin.”

* * *

        Niko had begun to panic. Chippy was okay, he was breathing fine and his heart was beating, but she couldn’t stall for much longer. John would come in here any second now and interrupt everything again.

        “Niko, the key is on the counter! I know that’s where I left it!” Niko had locked the door and was acting like it wouldn’t unlock no matter what she did, but John of course had figured out a way around that. He was asking for her to slide the key under the door so he could try it from the outside, which would obviously work.

        “And I know that’s not where you left it, because it isn’t there!” Niko lied about the key. It was right next to her, but she couldn’t just let John have it.

        “You’ve tried lockpicking it and you’ve tried brute force on the handle, what kind of lock problem is this?” Niko could tell that John was beginning to become suspicious about her fibs. Who knew how much longer Chippy needed in there? Would it be a few seconds? An hour? All Niko knew was that she needed to stall for as much time as possible, and that’s what she would do.

        “Fine, I guess I’ll go find my skeleton key and try it out. If you find a way to get it open, then call me.” Niko knew that if John went to find a key, then it wouldn’t be much longer before he made his way into the room and found what she was hiding. She had to think of something.

        “Wait, John!” Niko couldn’t think of anything fast enough, so she did the only thing she could think of, which was to call out John’s name for no reason.

        “What, do you have it unlocked?” Niko combed through her brain to figure out something, anything to say to John that may stall him for just a bit longer.

        “Do… Do you think that the Hamil Faction may have done this?” Niko knew that it sounded stupid, but at least it was something.

        “That seems a little far-fetched to me, just breaking a door and leaving it at that? They tend to do bigger things.” Niko could hear John start to walk away again, and she knew that she couldn’t come up with any other dumb ideas to keep him talking, she had to think of something else.

        “Think, Niko, think!” Niko then thought of an idea. She looked around the living quarters for John’s laptop, then saw it lying on a table in the kitchen area. She ran to it and put in the password, which was still just John’s name.

        “I’ve gotta get him to change that.” Niko clicked on an app that she hadn’t ever personally used before, but she figured it would be easy enough to figure out. It was an app that they developed five years ago, almost right after John lost his family, and it had been designed for only ASI admins to use on their personal devices. When used, it was supposed to sense what base the laptop was currently in and give full control to all the mechanical doors, cells, and lights to whoever was operating it. She hoped that she may be able to shut John out of where he was trying to get to.

        “Let’s see here… The skeleton key would most likely be found in the admin room, so I should close off all the doors that lead to it.” Niko fed the computer commands to seal shut all of the doors that led to the key, she could only hope that it would help.

* * *

        “What do you mean you can’t control it? I want these doors open!” John couldn’t catch a break. First his own, normal door was broken, and now all of the mechanical ones wouldn’t open up.

        “I’m sorry sir, it’s like they’ve all been manually overridden! We’ll get them open, but we can’t say how long it’ll take.” An operator was telling John all about the mechanics of how they had been shut, but he really didn’t care right now. Being in this emotional base and having so many things go wrong was leading him towards a fit of anger, which was something he didn’t want to have.

        “Just get these things open quickly, I have things to do.”

        “So, I’m Zeem, the leader of the S-Team. I’m calm and sometimes even called emotionless. I was a master of my psychic powers, and could control every aspect of my body to my will. I could even choose whether to feel pain or not, which was a great assistance to me in battle. Not to brag, but I’m highly intelligent and could lift several thousand pounds with my mind alone. Oh, and I was born in the USA, or at least the past universe’s version of it. This world is very similar to the one that we lived in before. It seems Rezog’s reset didn’t do all too much, huh?” Zeem began the introductions with himself. Chippy wondered if he could ever get to the point where he could ignore pain, but aside from that, he was glad to finally get to know them. He was also interested in that past universe’s earth and the mechanics of Rezog’s resets. How had so many things ended up the same?

        “My name’s Yasunari! I’m Japanese and Zeem’s right-hand man. People called me hotheaded and energetic, which was perfect for what I used to do! I could make fires hot enough to evaporate tungsten. I was actually originally a bit of a villain myself, but then Zeem showed me everything I was doing wrong and got me on the right path.” Chippy took a liking to Yasunari, he seemed like a fun guy to be around. He also wondered what sort of villainous past Yasunari may have had, he hoped it wasn’t anything too bad.

        “My name’s Flavio. I’m Italian and fairly calm like Zeem, however I’m much more competitive than he is, and can get fired up if I want to. I had the ability to cool the things around me down and freeze things in solid ice. In my prime, I was able to reach just a few degrees above absolute zero a few feet around me. I joined the S-Team after I accidentally froze my entire school over, Zeem bailed me out of the trouble I would have been in.” Chippy hadn’t really thought of how his two temperature powers would be separate before, he always had thought of them as being a dual package, but it made sense that they were from two different people.

        “I’m Tadita. I’m Native American and I’m a little more on the shy side, but if I can get to know people, then I come out of my shell a little and become more of a chatterbox. I joined the S-Team after I saw them on TV once and thought that my abilities may have been good enough for them, and I suppose they fit the bill. I’m the one that gave you your speed and other fast abilities like how quickly you heal. I was able to run almost a thousand miles per hour if I had enough buildup, but we’ll see if you can beat me.” Chippy smiled at the challenge. Even though they were all about to be combined into one, they still acted normal.

        “The name’s Ghusun. I'm Egyptian and I’m a competitive, sporty kind of guy, but I also can be kinda soft if I get to know someone too well. As you can see, I’m on the shorter side, but I don’t let that bother me too much. I had powers over plants and could shoot seeds from my feet that were packed with nutrients into the ground. Those seeds grew into plants almost instantly for me to use. I had a strange mental connection with anything I grew, so I could control them to an extent to help me in battle. I trust that with Zeem’s powers, you’ll be able to use them even better than I ever could. I joined the S-Team when I accidentally grew a massive flower out of an abandoned storage warehouse. Zeem offered to save me from having to pay any fees so long as I joined his team. Heh, for a moment there, I was scared you’d never discover that you had my powers! I’m glad you finally found them.” Chippy noticed that Ghusun was significantly shorter than the rest of the S-Team. He gave a sort of embarrassed grin at how long it took him to discover his plant powers, it had only been a few minutes ago that he had found them.

        “And finally, I’m Minta. I’m Greek and super outgoing and friendly, but I still have a few anger issues that I never seemed to get over. I have the strength of a thousand men, and could easily lift things that others would consider impossible. I joined the S-Team after I accidentally brought down a bank building in a fit of rage. Somebody had scammed me out of a ton of money, and I couldn’t really control myself. Zeem bailed me out of jail so long as I joined him, so I of course did. It’s nice that we’re all finally able to meet you, Chippy.” Chippy thought Minta was pretty, but it made him wonder if that was weird since she was a part of him. He pushed the thought out of his head and instead said something himself.

        “I’m glad that I could finally meet all of you, too. I’m not sure how much longer I have with you all, but there is one more question that I’d like to ask before I go.” Zeem tilted his head in curiosity. What more could Chippy need to know?

        “Where did I get my name from? It just popped into my head when my friend asked what my name was.” Zeem grinned as he thought back to old times in that past. He knew exactly where the name came from.

        “We had a friend named Chippy long ago. He was actually a rabbit, but he could speak English and had extraordinary powers similar to Yasunari’s. You must have pulled that name from our memories.” Chippy… wasn’t sure how to feel. He named himself after a magic rabbit? Whatever, it was too late to change it now. Plus, the thing existed a universe ago, nobody else would know.

        “Niko! Did you let him…?” Chippy could hear whispers of John’s voice in back of him. It seemed that his time with the S-Team was coming to a close.

        “Unfortunately, Chippy, I can’t say we’ll see you later. Once our souls fully fuse together, we won’t exist anymore. Remember what we’ve told you; accept an orb and keep your body safe. You’re a weapon created to end this battle that’s been going on for so long. Goodbye, once and for all.” Chippy could feel a sharp needle stick into his arm. It seemed as if John had once more injected him with the thing that ended his dreams. Before his illusion faded away, he saw the S-Team wave at him as they all flew to one spot, merging into each other one by one. Zeem was the last to go, and he smiled one final time at Chippy before he entered the swirling combination of souls. Once he did, Chippy could see what looked to be a mirror image of himself emerge from the mixture. His soul had finally been finished.

        “Chippy! What is wrong with you? I told you not to accept things from random strangers, and here you are hallucinating again! Don’t tell me you’re already addicted to that blood. Do we need to give you treatment? You feel alright, right? Answer me!” John was freaking out over Chippy’s defiance, but Chippy couldn’t wipe the silly grin off his face. It had at least been a month since he fell from space, and he finally knew everything about his past. Well, not his past. He knew all about the past of the S-Team that he had inherited into himself. He was finally complete, and he knew everything that he needed to know.

        “I’ve figured it all out, John. The S-Team, the figures, the dog, It’s all clear to me now.” John paused for a moment, then slowly backed off of Chippy. He seemed to be okay, other than being so weirdly calm. Due to previous research, John had heard of people having so-called spiritual experiences with that subject before, but he never really believed any of it. However, he had dealt with demons, monsters, and lawyers before, so he supposed anything may be possible at this point. He was willing to hear Chippy out.

        “Fine, just promise me that if you ever need to do something like this again, let me know so we can do it in a controlled environment.” Chippy was surprised at John’s complete 180. He had at first been completely against the blood and wouldn’t listen to anything Chippy had to say, and now he was willing to? Maybe it was Chippy’s calm attitude that convinced him. Regardless of whatever changed his mind, Chippy went on to explain everything that the S-Team had told him. He could almost remember word-for-word everything they said, it was as if their speech was ingrained in his memory forever.

        “That’s… What?” John leaned back in his chair to process everything he had just been told. He had heard of and dealt with some crazy things, but soul fusions? Past universes? Deities stopping other deities? This was all so sudden, he didn’t know what to think.

        Niko felt the same way. Everything up until now had been at least somewhat reasonable to believe, but what Chippy had just spouted off was almost unbelievable.

        “It’s… It’s a story, alright,” Niko said, unable to find anything else to say in response.

        “It all makes sense now, right?” To Chippy, everything now was completely clear. He knew his mission and his purpose, now all he had to do was choose one of those figures.

        “Chippy, I’ll be honest with you; I don’t believe a word of anything that you just said.” Chippy felt a crushing feeling deep within him. After all they had been through, John didn’t believe him?

        “Personally, I’ll always think that you just had a weird dream because of a subject, but that doesn’t mean you can’t believe in any of this. I won’t hold anything against you for something you trust and believe in, and we can agree to disagree.” Chippy was happy that John didn’t try to discount anything he had said, but it still hurt him to know that he didn’t believe in him.

        “I guess we can believe different things. What about you, Niko? You have to have some sort of stance here, right?” Chippy turned to Niko to see if at least someone believed in him. Niko always agreed with him, she would now, right?

       “I… I still need time to think it all over. Give me a few… days.” Chippy couldn’t believe that even Niko had a hard time believing him. He hadn’t ever told any major lies before, why would he now?
        “I think I may do a little research into it, even if I don’t believe in it myself. I’ll look over documents of old myths and religions and see if anything relates. Before that, though, all these blood shenanigans have taken quite a while. It’s getting late, and I’ve scheduled a meeting with the president early tomorrow. We all need our sleep, let’s get to bed.” Chippy hadn’t noticed how late it had gotten, mostly because he was underground and there wasn’t any sun anyway, but still. He decided to skip most of his pre-bedtime routines today so that he could continue to think about his past. The only thing he did was brush his teeth, which Niko forced him to do. Once everything was dark and quiet, and John and Niko were sealed in their respective rooms, Chippy laid on the couch with his eyes open. He didn’t feel tired at all and his mind couldn’t rest. All he could think about was what was left for him to do.

        “If you figures can hear me, I’m ready to choose one of you. Put me asleep, and I’ll let one of you into me.” Chippy talked into the still air above him, hoping his words may reach the figures, wherever they may be. Even after this, he didn’t fall asleep. He laid awake for hours, thinking. He thought about his sole purpose, and then thought about the S-Team’s fate. Were they afraid to no longer exist? Did their conscious still exist somewhere? These things pestered his head until he was finally too tired to think any longer, and sleep finally took him over.

        “We heard your request.” Chippy knew the voice the moment he heard it, it was the voice of the blue figure. They had actually heard him? He opened his eyes and saw the triangular shape that the figures formed, along with the black void that surrounded him every time he came here.

        “Actually, we were just gonna pester you every time you slept until you gave in, but we can go with just hearing you.” The green figure spoke in its usual lax manner, destroying any tone of divinity or officiality.

        “Can you please shut up for once?” The gold figure also spoke in its usual insulting and semi-angry tone.

        “Listen, there isn’t really a good or better option out of any of you, right? So if I choose randomly, I should be fine?” Chippy wanted to make sure none of the brothers were stronger or better than one another before he chose. He wanted to be sure to choose the right option.

        “Yes.” All of the figures spoke together, confirming Chippy’s theory. Now all there was to do was choose one.

        “Alright, let’s see here. eeny, meeny, miny, moe…” Chippy chanted a nursery rhyme that Niko had taught him to use to choose things randomly. He figured randomness was the best thing to go with.

        “…On your big fat toe.” Chippy’s finger landed on the gold figure, which seemed somehow pleased to be chosen despite not having facial features.

        “Come to me, child.” The gold figure spoke in a condescending tone, which made Chippy question his decision. He had chosen the most violent-sounding one of them all, but he knew that random selection never lied. He walked closer to the gold figure, which stood about a head taller than him.

        “My name is Killzor, the god of death and one of the original three brothers created by Rezog. The word ‘kill’ was derived from my name due to the mass sprees of murder I went on to thin populations across various planets. You will be a host for my spirit so that I may drain energy and achieve my original strength so that I may find my brothers and destroy Rezog once and for all.” Killzor made a small speech before he continued on, which terrified Chippy.

        “Wait a second, god of death? Could you all give me little descriptions of yourselves before I choose?” Chippy could hear the green figure inhale as if he were about to speak, but the Killzor cut him off before he could say anything.

        “Too late!” For the first time, Chippy watched one of the figures make a quick movement on its own, the gold one. It leaped forth into his chest and he instantly felt a strange surge of both strength and weakness. He felt himself being drained almost immediately, but it also felt like he was supercharged and could do anything. Soon after that, his dream ended and he was knocked out cold. If he dreamed again that night, then he didn’t remember it.

    Chippy woke up to Niko gently shaking him, signaling it was time to get ready for his meeting with the president. He felt oddly refreshed from his sleep, he got up with tons of energy to start the day. He wondered if it was related to the dream he had, was Killzor giving him more energy? That wouldn’t make sense, he was supposed to be draining it, right?

        “We’ve just got one last meeting before we’re done with all this. Make sure to look nice, you wouldn’t want to screw this one up.” John had definitely become more lax since the first meeting. Chippy remembered how John had forced him to wear a tight suit and nice dress pants to go, but now he was letting him do his own thing for the most part. Chippy put on one of the hoodies that he loved so much and paired it with some sweatpants, which Niko quickly corrected. She gave him a pair of black jeans to put on instead, it seemed there was still someone that cared about what he wore.

        “Are we all ready? This is the last thing that we all have to do together, so let’s make it count. Chippy, you don’t have any more of that blood on you, do you?” Chippy grinned and shook his head. John smiled and held the door open for Chippy and Niko, he was glad to finally get out of here. The place held terrible memories for him, but he also couldn’t ignore all the good times he had here before. It turned into a mixed bag of emotions, which was too complicated for even him to understand.

        The trio made their way through the hangar and chose a plane to ride. After a quick inspection, They all got in and Niko followed through the exit procedures so they could begin their flight. They used the cloaking system the entire time since they flew close to the ground, and they made their way to an ASI base near where the president would be. During the flight, Chippy told his friends about the second dream he had, but they were both still skeptical about all of it. Regardless, they listened to him anyway and added their own theories and thoughts into the mix. It wasn’t long before they reached their destination, so they exited the plane and walked through the base out into a parking lot. John used one of his keys on an ASI car and headed the rest of the way towards the place of their final meeting, where their last trial awaited them.
        “Here we are, the National Palace. I don’t think this guy is as strict as Terrence or Anton, so this shouldn’t be too bad.” The three got out of the car and headed into the large building in front of them. It was a fairly long and well-decorated structure that had a large flag in the middle of it; Chippy was interested in the history of the building, but he didn’t have time for that right now. They left their car and quickly made their way into the building, walking to a receptionist who was ready to greet them.

        “Hello, I’m John Johnson, and I’m here for a meeting with Mr. Flores.” John pulled out his all-too-familiar ASI badge to prove his importance to the receptionist. Chippy wondered what may happen if someone outside of ASI got such a badge, that definitely wouldn’t be good.

        “The second door in the hall to my right is where you’ll find him.” The receptionist pointed them in the right direction and John thanked her. They made their way to the door and stopped for just a moment before entering.

        “One last meeting, here we go.” John opened the door and the three immediately took notice of the president.

        “Ah, hello mis amigos! Come, take a seat!” Mr. Flores greeted them warmly and mixed some Spanish into his English, he already seemed to be quite the character. The room was decorated with many posters and small figurines depicting various people, he must’ve collected them.

        “Thank you for having us, Mr. Flores. Let’s get started, shall we?” John shook the president’s hand and then took a seat just a few feet away. Chippy and Niko followed, shaking his hand and then finding their own seats in the room. Unlike the other large, official buildings they had been in, this one felt a little more homey, at least this room did. There were normal, comfortable chairs instead of rigid ones placed fancily at a long table. Chippy was glad that Mr. Flores was more of a nice guy like Lucas had been.

        “John, Niko, and Chippy, right? It’s bueno to meet you all! Let’s get right down to it. Chippy, you’re the one with the powers, no?” Chippy nodded and then realized that Mr. Flores should have had no way of knowing that he had them. He was only supposed to know that he fell from space, right?

        “Oh, you have to be more careful than that; you just admitted to having them. Don’t worry though, your secreto’s safe with me” Chippy blushed a little in embarrassment and then looked down. Had that been someone not nice, they would’ve used it against him.

        “Is Mr. Flores another friend of yours, John?” Niko took notice of how friendly the man was, especially the part where he didn’t seem to mind Chippy’s powers.

        “Nope, we just met yesterday when I planned the actual meeting. He came out and talked to me himself, actually; he’s just very friendly.” Mr. Flores smiled and looked over to Niko, she was the one he knew the least about.

        “You’re Chippy’s novia, right?” Niko then blushed herself, but she had a more surprised look.

        “What does novia mean?” Chippy had been able to roughly decipher what the last few Spanish words meant, but this one evaded him.

        “It means girlfriend, Chippy.” John informed Chippy of the word’s meaning and he instantly waved his hands in a denying fashion.

        “No, no, no, we’re just friends.” Niko then nodded her head a little in agreement.

        “Yeah… Just friends.”

        “Ah, I see. Well, whatever your relationship is, we’re all here together to discuss Chippy’s origin. Someone told me that you fell from espacio! They sent me a video and everything, and they told me that I should keep the army on high alert to capture you if they saw you.” Mr. Flores then grinned, realizing how poor of a job his army had done.

        “It seems you’ve made it right to my home, though. I guess they didn’t do too well.” Chippy returned the grin and thought back to how no armies had ever actually found him. John had done a good job of keeping him safe, aside from the Hamil Faction, of course.

        “I’m guessing by your relaxed demeanor, you don’t actually care all too much about Chippy being free, do you?” Niko chimed in and Mr. Flores nodded his head in agreement.

        “The rest of the government are a bunch of sticks in the lodo, if you know what I mean. They think you’re a little green man from Mars that wants to take the Earth over! Or something like that, I try to tune them out when they’re being so ridículo.” Mr. Flores leaned back in his chair, further amplifying his uncaring attitude.

        “So this meeting’s been a waste of time for all of us, then?” John didn’t like his time wasted, especially with people that didn’t care.

        “You know how closely governments try to follow official documents. They want it to look as good as possible on paperwork that we’re letting an extraterrestre live freely in this world. Having a meeting with ASI is the best way to do that, so that’s what they made me do.” The entire situation reminded Chippy of the meeting with Lucas. Neither of them really cared that Chippy was from space, the rest of the government was just pressuring them to do things by the book. He wondered just how many things got slowed down by this attitude. John seemed ready to get out, so he began wrapping things up quickly.

        “Well, if you really don’t mind, all I need is a verbal confirmation that you can let Chippy live free without your army actively looking for him, even in Mexico.” Mr. Flores then nodded and said “Sí, Chippy’s allowed to live wherever he likes in Mexico, or the rest of the Earth.” John stood and held out his hand one last time. Mr. Flores stood as well and shook it, then offered it to Chippy.

        “I wish you luck, Chippy. Go show the mundo that aliens aren’t as bad as they think.”

        “Thank you.” Chippy took his hand and shook it. Niko offered hers out to Mr. Flores as well.

        “And how could I forget about his novia? Good luck, you two.” Niko pursed her lips and decided not to say anything as they shook hands, it wasn’t worth trying to explain again.

        “Well, you three be off. I’m sure you have more important things to do and people to see than yo.” The three gave one last wave as they exited the room, then the building. Chippy was nervous to see what was next. The final meeting was so short and quick, what was John planning on doing now?

        “Let me apologize in advance, Chippy. In celebration of my retirement and the success of your mission, I actually had a short vacation planned on a remote island; the same one we crashed into on that plane to Russia.” John paused briefly as they all got into the car they had taken there. He started it up and began speaking again once he got on the road.

        “However, Jerry called me and said he needed to have an emergency meeting with all of us at a base in Guyana. He didn’t say much besides it had something to do with the Hamil Faction, so I’m guessing he must have finally found their leader and wants me to take further action. Instead of our nice vacation, we’ll be going there to meet up with him. After that, I have a house prepared for you to live in, so I’ll bring you there and you can live your life.” Chippy wondered why Jerry wanted all three of them there. He only really needed John, right? Whatever, it would buy him more time to be with his friends and, more importantly, think about what he was going to do with his life.

        “I don’t think we’ve seen Jerry since the incident at the Hamil base. I almost forgot about him.” Niko also couldn’t figure out why Jerry would want to see her. She was just a pilot, not anyone important.

        “Niko, you’ll fly us to Guyana to see him, I don’t think I have to ask if you’re willing to fly. Chippy, this would be a good time to say any last goodbyes to him. He was one of the first people on the planet that you met, after all.” As John drove back to the base from which they came, not even he could figure out why Jerry specifically requested to see Chippy and Niko. Maybe even he was feeling a little sentimental about the mission being over? He had been there at the start, after all. No matter, they’d wait and find out for themselves

    Jerry gazed upon his creation as it was set up for him, it was the ultimate killing machine. He had requested a mech suit to be made for him that he could fight Chippy with. It stood twelve feet tall and was almost as wide as a small car. The electropiercer that he picked out had been modified to an increased size and welded onto the left hand. It drew power from the suit itself, so it wouldn’t fail him unless the entire suit did. The right arm didn’t have a hand, but instead a canon-like appendage. It was able to shoot grenades like an RPG, which would certainly be useful if Chippy got a little too rowdy. An extra appendage stuck out of the middle of the suit that had a shield attached to it. The added arm was able to rotate a full 360 degrees around the entire suit, as well as move up and down. This allowed Jerry to guard any place that Chippy may try to attack. Finally, attached to the right shoulder of the suit was the miniature railgun that he had brought with him from India.

        “It’s looking good, all of you. Let’s wrap it up pretty quickly now, just a few more test runs and it needs to be ready; Chippy’s on his way right now.” Jerry hadn’t actually used the thing himself quite yet, he was letting willing Hamil Faction members pilot it for him before he used it. The suit was actually quite dangerous for the user themselves; it had been made in a hurry, so errors and mistakes had been made all throughout its creation. One of his test subjects attempted to use it while they were experimenting with powering it with chizon, but he didn’t do very well. All of the electricity in his body was forcefully drained out of him, as well as most of the moisture. His skeleton was about all that remained after that incident, so they decided to stick to electrical power rather than chizon. After that, another tester gathered the courage to control the mech once they had switched power sources. She had managed to make it take a few steps, and even rotate the shield around a little, but once she attempted to move one of the arms, she was impaled by a few crossbeams that had escaped their sockets they were supposed to be in. Twenty-three crossbeams, to be exact. The entire machine had almost collapsed.

        “We’re just tidying up now, Your suit should be fully functional,” one of the many scientists working on the project reassured Jerry. All of the tests that they had run after that weren’t nearly as fatal, just some minor injuries here and there. Jerry was confident in the machine’s capabilities now, even if he got a few scratches every now and again while operating the thing.

        Jerry’s phone suddenly rang in the default ringtone that he never changed. He quickly drew it out, expecting it to be John informing him of his incoming arrival, but it was D. Jerry thought D didn’t want to hear from him until he had Chippy, but he answered regardless. He was sure that not answering would be much worse than talking to an angry D.

        “Hey, Jerry! My favorite, slimy little betrayer. How have things been? How are the wife and kids?” Jerry could tell that D was being sarcastic. If he was angry or upset about something, he always opened by seeming kind and almost as if he actually cared about him.

        “Cut to the chase, D. You know that I don’t even have a wife and kids.” Jerry was frankly sick of D’s whole act. He didn’t really want to work for him anymore, but he knew the power that he held in exposing all of ASI’s secrets. He couldn’t just let all of them get out, no matter what he had to do.

        “Testy today, are we? Well, I’m feeling the same way. I’ve been monitoring Chippy, Jerry. He’s been to his last country and is flying to who-knows-where right now. You’ve failed me for the last time, Jerry. ASI’s secrets, the money, it’s all—”

        “Chippy’s coming to me right now. I have a trap set for him and he’s going to walk right into it. I know you’re tracing this call, get over here right now and you can have him.” Jerry cut D off for the very first time, the fear that he instilled in him had worn off… mostly.

        D was silent for a minute or so, thinking about the offer Jerry was giving him. He had already given him plenty of chances to get Chippy for him, but he was saying that he had Chippy right where he wanted him. He hated people in general, but he especially hated ones that believed they deserved chance after chance after chance.

        “I don’t like the fashionably late game you’re playing, Jerry. You’d better have Chippy for me this time, or we are through.” D hung up the phone, but this time, Jerry didn’t feel fear. He didn’t feel lonely, he didn’t even feel conflicted. He knew exactly what he was going to do, and he was going to do it.

        “Hey, we’ve cleaned everything up. Do you want to test it out before Chippy gets here?” a scientist up on a tall ladder called out to Jerry. He nodded and walked towards his mechanical behemoth. He grabbed on to the built-in handles and climbed up using some small footstools on the front. He strapped himself into it using a seatbelt-like mechanism, then took hold of two control sticks. The one on the right controlled the thing’s movement. It would automatically walk forward and turn around depending on where he pushed the stick. The one on the left controlled the left hand, so he had easy access to his main melee weapon. The thing had cameras all over it, so it could sense where the shield needed to go automatically, but he had a small, electronic screen in front of him that he could use to position it manually if he needed to. The railgun and the right arm automatically aimed at moving targets, all he had to do was press a button under his left foot to shoot the railgun or one under his right foot for the grenade launcher. He could also aim these manually with control pads to his right and left if he so desired. Everything had been optimized to run as smoothly as possible to make subduing Chippy easy. Jerry knew that Chippy wouldn’t just let himself be killed, he’d do anything he could to stay alive, so all of the things he attached to the robot didn’t seem like overkill to him. All he needed to do was get one good shot in to cripple Chippy or knock him out, then he’d be golden.

        “Testing the RPG now.” Jerry pressed his right foot down and a grenade rocketed out of the machine… before his employees were able to leave the area. They scampered out the large metal door before the grenade was able to explode, and just barely made it in time. Jerry was able to feel the heat of the blast and the explosion left markings in the heavily reinforced metal, so he’d have to make sure not to use the explosive weapons at close quarters.

        “Whoops, sorry about that. Go ahead and close the door, I’ll be in here until they get here. You all know the plan, follow it.” Jerry continued testing the mech’s various programs and functions after his employees brought the door down.

        Rows of reinforced lights illuminated the room, casting a shadow below Jerry that let him see what had become of him. He was a large, ugly, killer beast that’d do whatever it needed to for itself. Jerry pushed the image of himself as a monster out of his head and focused on his current task; he could drown in self-pity once he was done.

* * *

        “Here we are, this should be the base that Jerry wants us to meet him at. Niko, you know how to get the jet down for this type of base.” Chippy noticed that this base wasn’t nearly as disguised or hidden as the other ASI bases. It was shielded by large trees and brush, sure, but it was obvious that it was some sort of military building if anyone could see it.

        “Down we go.” Niko brought the jet down and rolled on the runway for a few seconds. Once they finished moving, she powered the vehicle down and gave her friends the all-clear to get up and leave.

        “Thank you as always for your piloting, Niko. I’ll be sure to get you a big bonus for all this once Chippy’s settled.” Niko smiled at the thought of getting the bonus. What would she spend it on? Maybe she could finally get a real house instead of the apartment that she had been living in.

        “John, doesn’t this base seem a little… How do I say it? Off? There’s no disguise and it looks like a lot of people are gathered up outside.” Chippy was sort of nervous about this base, it wasn’t like any of the others he had been around; it almost seemed malicious in a way.

        “Now that you mention it, there do seem to be an awful lot of people outside. Are they all out there for us?” Niko took notice of how many seemed to be looking right at their jet, none of them were actually doing any of their ASI duties; they just seemed to be standing there.

        “Maybe Jerry has something special ready for us. Congratulations, perhaps? Come on, no point in wasting more time.” John opened the door on the side of the jet and lowered down a metal ladder to get down. He was the first to climb down, followed by Niko, and then lastly Chippy.

        When they did get all the way down, nobody stopped what they had been doing. The only different thing was that instead of staring at the jet, they were now staring directly at the three of them.

        “I can’t say I’m a fan of this.” As John led Chippy and Niko towards one of the doors in the facility, he began to slowly draw his pistol out of the holster on his side. He was becoming more suspicious of this place by the second.

        “No need for weaponry, sir! This is a time for celebration, not bloodshed.” From seemingly nowhere, a random person in an ASI scientist outfit pushed down on John’s gun, shoving it back into the holster. Where did this guy come from?

        “I’ll do as I please.” John brought the pistol out of his belt entirely and held it at his side. He knew that he couldn’t take on all these people if they decided to jump him, but he could buy some time for Chippy and Niko to escape if they had to.

        “Buzzkill… Right this way, Jerry’s waiting for you inside.” The scientist brought the three inside and things didn’t get much better. There was a large crowd inside that seemed to surround them wherever they went, all gazing right at them.

        “Hey, Chippy!” One of the onlookers called out to him from the crowd. Chippy looked over to see where the voice came from and noticed a familiar face.

        “Charlie? What are you doing here? You—”

        “It’s a trap! Get out! Run!” As soon as Charlie got his words out, chaos broke loose.

        It all happened so fast, Chippy could barely catalog the events that took place. First and foremost, He could hear Charlie get shot and tackled down by those around him. Next, everyone seemed to draw out their own weapons, but nobody actually used them. The crowd swallowed John and Niko into its mass and restrained them on the ground, both of them were unable to do anything.

        “Chippy, get ‘em off of us!” Niko called out for help, but Chippy was busy getting pushed forward by what had to be at least fifty people. He didn’t even think to use his powers, he was too focused on trying not to get pushed down and trampled by those pushing him.

        Before he knew it, he was pushed onto the ground in a new room. A thick metal door sealed behind him, so he wasn’t going to break back out unless he put all his focus into melting it.

        “What’s going on? Why are you all attacking us?” Chippy banged on the door, which left a few dents in it due to his immense strength. He looked in back of him and saw a large metal monster facing him directly. A man was inside of the beast who looked to be controlling it; a man Chippy recognized all too well.

    “Jerry? What is all this? Why are all these people attacking us? Is it the—” Chippy then realized what was going on, why the Hamil Faction members listened to Jerry so well. He was astounded that he hadn’t realized it before.

        “—Hamil Faction…” Jerry smiled and looked Chippy right in the eyes. How had it taken him this long to figure this out? The world really was ignorant, wasn’t it?

        “It took you long enough. I’m the leader of the Hamil Faction, Chippy. We’ve been targeting you so we can sell you off for premium money, that way we can continue what we do in peace without financial struggle. I have some time to kill before our buyer arrives though, so why don’t I tell you a little more about us?” Chippy couldn’t believe that Jerry was behind it all, but it all made sense now. The opinions that he seemed to express at the start of his journey reflected the Hamil Faction’s perfectly. This and the fact that he was the lead investigator on the Hamil Faction made so much sense. If he were the one looking into it, they’d never be discovered.

        “ASI and the Hamil Faction have always been together, you can’t have one without the other. It started long ago when the original founder of ASI—John Adams—had a disagreement with his longtime enemy and rival, Alexander Hamilton; hence the name ‘Hamil Faction.’” Chippy took a step towards Jerry, only to have a bullet shot right in front of him. He looked to the side and noticed a weaponized camera in the corner of the ceiling. He looked around and saw that they were in every ceiling corner, watching, waiting for him to make a move.

        “Don’t interrupt my monologue, I’ve been working on it for weeks! I don’t even plan on using this machine, I just want you to keep still until D gets here.” Chippy remained still and silent, thinking of a way he could take down Jerry without dying.

        “Anyway, the one thing they came together for was to create ASI to shelter anomalous subjects from the public; however, they had very different ideals. Adams wanted to contain the subjects so they could still live out their lives, even if they were imprisoned. Hamilton wished for the subjects to be destroyed at all costs, to avoid any sort of revolution that may happen from the imprisoned. Their disagreement broke ASI up into the two factions we know and love today. However, back then, they were much more fifty-fifty rather than the ninety-nine to one we have now.” Chippy noticed a few loose pieces of metal on the robot that Jerry was piloting. He assumed that the cameras had only been programmed not to attack very specific things and people, and that they would open fire on anything else that moved. If he could separate the metal from that robot, then…

        “They had a civil war of sorts, with Adams’ side winning in the end. The remains of the Hamil Faction broke down and operated in the shadows for years after that, with each first born descendent of Hamilton taking over and leading it for their lifetime until their kid took it from them. Same thing goes for Adams, John’s directly related to John Adams, and I’m a descendant of Alexander Hamilton.” Chippy tried to push what Jerry said out of his mind and instead focus on the loose metal. He used all of his psychic strength to lift it upwards, and it moved just a little bit. If he could keep this up, then his plan could go into action.

        “Thing is, John’s kids died in that accident, so he had to find someone else to take over for him. I took the opportunity, and now the Hamil Faction can take over and spread its ideals across all of ASI. Nobody will be able to question my decisions, and I’ll eliminate all subjects once and for all. Our world will be safe, we won’t have to worry about the likes of you anymore.” Chippy needed to buy more time before Jerry tried to cripple him. He’d have to talk while trying to lift the metal.

        “What’s so bad about us ‘anomalous subjects,’ huh? Why do you even need me, anyway? If you take over ASI, you’ll have all the government funding you need.” Chippy didn’t really care to hear the answers, he just needed more time.

        “You yourself may not be so bad, but there are plenty who are malevolent and crave violence. It’s much easier to just kill off all of you than sort through and find the needle in the haystack, if you know what I mean. As for the money, it’s not about that anymore. We were contacted by this guy that wanted you so badly and were given hope by the money offer, we were almost broke at the time, mind you. That boost in morale was the main thing I needed, my faction was starting to act on their own and launch their own missions, they were going to overthrow me. The only reason I’m following through with it instead of killing you is because he threatened to leak classified ASI information to the public. One life is better than billions of people knowing about government secrets that they can’t handle, right?” Chippy gave one last big push with his mind, and the stray metal snapped loose off the machine. He was right about the cameras, and they immediately opened fire on the floating metal. He forced the metal to zoom towards one of the cameras, and while he didn’t have enough force behind it to break it, the bullets that the other cameras released did. Within the span of a few seconds, he repeated this process twice more, which left him with one camera, still firing at the metal. Chippy angled the metal just right and caused the bullet to bounce right back at the camera, breaking the last one.

        “You tricky little—get over here!” Jerry forced his control stick forward and the mech ran towards Chippy. Chippy had just enough time to sidestep the beast hurtling towards him and attempted to push it away. He hadn’t gathered enough strength, however, and only managed to push himself backwards. He didn’t want to do anything to hurt Jerry, but he’d defend himself if he had to.

        “Can’t you see this is for the good of the world, you nearsighted fool?” Jerry quickly turned the machine around and slashed at Chippy with an electrically-charged knife. Chippy could feel the sparks on his skin, Jerry had been just too far away to make contact.

        “ASI’s the most secure place in the world! You’re delusional if you think someone has information to leak! Even if they do, how do you know they’ll stick to their word?” Chippy cautiously backed away from Jerry as their conversation continued, he didn’t want to be too close to that thing. The room was about five-hundred feet wide and long, so there was plenty of space for their brawl.

        “Nothing’s completely secure, nothing’s completely safe, nothing’s completely sure. All we can do is raise the odds in our favor. That’s what I’m doing right now, Chippy; I’m raising the odds.” Jerry spoke with an oddly calm tone, it didn’t seem like he was unsure of anything, despite what he just said. Chippy waited for his next move, but the machine was remaining in one spot.

        “You’re insane!” Chippy watched as the robot’s right arm raised up and a deep barrel pointed at Chippy; he knew what that meant. He watched as it shot a huge-looking bullet at him. It wasn’t a direct hit, but it exploded on impact with the ground that Chippy stood near, forcing him backwards. Chippy cooled the air around him to reduce the effect of the explosion, but it still hurt him quite a lot.

        “I know everything about you, Chippy. The telekinesis, the temperature, the speed and the power; every trick up your sleeve has been revealed to me. What are you going to do? If you wait, the buyer will come and pick you up. If you attack, I’ll easily be able to counter you and knock you out myself. It’s a lose-lose situation, just give yourself up and make it simpler for me.” Chippy noticed that Jerry left out Chippy’s plant powers. He never actually told John about them, so they were never reported to the rest of ASI, meaning Jerry didn’t know about them.

        Chippy used his telekinesis to bring himself up into the air. He flew above the machine and Jerry looked up at him with a smile.

        “Flying isn’t going to help you, Chippy.” Before Jerry could launch another attack, Chippy leaned backwards and thought about growing plants. Although he knew that he couldn’t in this purely metal room, he could still use the seeds as ammunition. The holes in his feet opened and shot them out with impressive force. Chippy managed to get three seeds into Jerry’s chamber before the rest of them got blocked by his shield. One made contact with Jerry himself, putting a hole in his right bicep. Whatever Chippy shot in there was blocking the bleeding, so he’d leave it there for now.

        “Agh! What did you just do to me?” Jerry had been shot before, but whatever hit him felt more dull than a bullet, almost as if it were blunt force.

        “You don’t know as much as you think, Jerry. Give it up already!” Chippy dropped down from his vantage point before he got a headache and ran towards Jerry as fast as he could. As he expected, Jerry blocked him with the shield, but Chippy launched a full-force punch into the contraption. His punch was strong enough to leave an imprint of his fist in it, but not quite enough to break through.

        “Your strength isn’t even strong enough to break through metal! Pathetic!” Jerry slashed at Chippy once more with the knife and this time caught his shirt with it. It gave him a shock, but the knife ripped his shirt away, so it wasn’t anything fatal.

        “Ow!” Chippy recoiled away from the shock he had been given. His signature hoodie now had a large gash in the front of it, displaying the power that Jerry held.

        “Just pass out already!” Jerry began firing the railgun attached to his creation’s shoulder. He let the thing aim itself, but it wasn’t great at predicting movement. Chippy did acrobatic movements in order to dodge the large shells being launched at him, nothing was going to hit him with how fast he was.

        “No matter.” Jerry, while shooting the gun, launched another grenade at Chippy. Chippy hadn’t expected him to use them at such close quarters, so he was knocked back once more by the blast, and this time he fell to the ground.

His ears rang from the explosion and the rest of his body began to hurt. He was certain that something had to be broken, there was no way he’d come out of something like that unharmed. Chippy opened his eyes just in time to see the metallic monster charging at him at full speed. With just seconds to react, Chippy shot more seeds out of his feet while he made another ball of flame like he had against the tiger. He shot it forward along with the seeds, but Jerry’s shield blocked everything. The mech pinned Chippy down with its one hand and had the electropiercer right next to Chippy’s head. He could feel the heat of the electricity sparking off of the knife, ready to slice and dice through anything.

        “That grenade was a little close for comfort, huh? Anyway, Goodnight.” The machine raised its body, and Chippy knew that he was about to receive a heavy blow to the head to knock him out. What could he do? Everything was happening so fast, he couldn’t even think.

        “Die.” Chippy heard another voice utter the word and Jerry looked in back of him to see where it came from. Behind him, he saw someone he had never seen before. They were dark-skinned, had golden hair and eyes, and wore a gray t-shirt and shorts.

        “Who are you? How did you get in here?” Jerry kept Chippy pinned down, but turned the machine around to get a better look at the guy. He was quite tall and had a frightening build; he was a guy that Jerry definitely wouldn’t want to cross… If he weren’t wearing a giant mechanical suit of armor, that was.

        “Death incarnate.” The new contender charged at the robot and punched it with a heavy fist. He must have had superhuman strength even greater than Chippy’s, as Jerry and his suit were sent barreling backwards without an opportunity to catch themselves before they slammed into a wall.

        “I won’t allow anyone to harm my vessel.” Upon this statement, Chippy knew exactly who this guy was. Killzor had sapped enough energy already to at least make a short appearance, and he was going to use that time to protect Chippy.

        “Vessel? Death incarnate? Chippy, what have you been getting into?” Jerry held his head in one hand as he got up, he had hit it pretty hard on the back of the machine while it was rolling and it had given him a headache.

        “Whatever, I don’t care what you’ve done. You! Whoever you are, if you stand in my way, I’ll kill you without hesitation.” Jerry aimed the RPG arm at Killzor and fired away. Every time he seemed to fire, though, Killzor appeared in a different spot just before the thing could hit him.

        “Die already!” Jerry continued his firing, now using the railgun as well. No matter what he did, Killzor seemed to keep getting closer, as if he weren’t even fazed by the loud noises or violent blasts.

        “That isn’t what I do.” Killzor suddenly appeared right before Jerry and grabbed him by his neck. He was strapped into the machine so that he wouldn’t fall out during combat, but he was certain that by this guy’s strength, he wouldn’t have any problem ripping him out.

        “Killzor! You don’t have to kill him! Just get him out of the machine!” Killzor looked back at Chippy, he wasn’t used to anyone having the guts to tell him what to do. He had a long history of people fearing him too much to even approach him.

        “What do you mean ‘don’t kill—’” Jerry cut Killzor off and used his hesitation to pull one of the control sticks to his side. This caused the Electropiercer to stab into Killzor’s side and electrocute him. Jerry himself got shocked because the electricity flowed back to him, but Killzor let go before too much electricity coursed into him.

        “Hesitation kills, Killzor.” Jerry, for good measure, moved the knife up and down inside of Killzor to make sure he was stirred up well before he removed it. Killzor fell to the ground and twitched a few times due to the electricity before disappearing.

        “I’ll cross the bridge of whoever that guy was when I get to it. Right now, you’re my only concern.” Chippy had managed to stand up while Killzor held Jerry back, but that was about all he had been able to achieve. He was already banged up pretty bad from the fight and he couldn’t will his body to do much more.

        “I can’t die, Chippy, I can only be wounded. I got him off of you, now it's up to you to finish him off.” Chippy could hear Killzor’s voice in his head and was reassured by him that he would be okay. He saw Jerry aiming his suit’s guns at him, so he knew he couldn’t stay still for much longer. He dashed in a zigzag pattern towards Jerry so he couldn’t get locked-on to him, and he ran as fast as he could.

        “Tadita, give me your speed. Minta, give me your strength,” Chippy whispered to himself as he approached Jerry and his metal monster. He was going to put everything he had into this finishing blow to destroy Jerry’s creation. At this point, Chippy didn’t care if he hurt Jerry or not; it was clear that he had gone off the deep end.

       “Zeem, give me your wisdom. Ghusun, Flavio, Yasunari… S-Team, give me your power!” Chippy heated one fist and cooled the other, he jumped in the air and forced himself to go even faster using his telekinesis. He raised his two feet and began shooting seeds out of both, this was his final and most powerful attack that he could muster.

        A loud boom filled the room. The temperature difference between his two fists had caused an explosion as he made contact with the thing. Steam surrounded them, so Chippy couldn’t see anything, he’d have to wait for it to clear to see if he had been victorious or not.

He wasn’t.

        The shield! He had completely forgotten about the shield! He launched his most powerful attack right into the thick metal guarding Jerry and his machine, not them themselves! While he had managed to penetrate the shield and make a hole through it, it wasn’t enough to break through fully, and instead all four of his limbs had gotten stuck in the holes that they created.

        Jerry coughed a few times as the steam passed by. He really hadn’t been ready for that final attack and had just barely gotten his shield up in time. He was surprised to see that Chippy had managed to break through it, but it wasn’t a bad surprise; it meant that Chippy was trapped and couldn’t do anything else to him for as long as he needed.

        “Thanks for making this easier for me, Chippy. This was supposed to go a lot smoother, but that dang mole Charlie warned you all just before you all got here and I couldn’t catch you all off guard. I know John’s pressed that panic button that he always carries with him, so tons of ASI guards should be here at any minute. We just have to hope that they won’t be able to break into this room before your buyer gets here.” Jerry pushed a button and the shield extended away from the body of the machine a few feet, he didn’t like Chippy being that close to him. With him further away, Jerry could see his face, and he was… grinning?

        “Why do you have that smile on your face? I’ve beaten you, we’re waiting for D right now.” Chippy giggled a little and Jerry began to get angry. What was Chippy doing?

        “You have to dig out the bullet, or else you get lead poisoning, if you know what I mean.” Jerry felt a rush of adrenaline as he looked down at the hole in his bicep. Whatever Chippy had shot into him earlier, he never found time to dig it out and cover the wound.

        “What did you put into me? Get it out!” Jerry began frantically digging inside the hole despite how much it hurt him. He didn’t care about pain anymore, the fear of what may happen to him far outweighed that. He had let an anomalous subject shoot something out of their body into his without any treatment, what was going to happen to him?

        “I’m a little stuck right now, can’t help you with that.” Chippy taunted Jerry in his fit of fear, he had won.

        “The plants take longer to grow outside of soil, but as long as they hit some form of organic matter, they’ll still sprout eventually.”

        “Plants? Plants!” Jerry now knew the power that Chippy had over him. He could easily suffocate him in leaves or even turn his body to moss. He couldn’t feel the seed anywhere inside of his bicep, but he could feel some fuzzy matter.

        “No…” A small vine sprouted out of Jerry’s arm and acted like a new member of his body, except it followed Chippy’s command. Using his psychic bond, he told the plant to undo all of Jerry’s latches, and so it did.

        “Hey! Stop it!” Jerry resisted the vine as much as he could, but it was no use. A second one sprouted out of his arm and held back his limbs so that he couldn’t interfere with the first one’s goal. Soon enough, all of his protective measures were undone and he fell out of his machine.

        “Please. Chippy. You don’t understand what you’re doing! I’m the only way that ASI can keep its secrets! D’s going to leak them all out!” Chippy commanded his vines to pull back at the metal hole of the shield so he could wiggle his way out. Once they did, he easily floated back down towards the ground and approached Jerry himself.

        “I don’t know who D is, but I do know that you’re a psycho. It’s over, Jerry. The Hamil Faction, D, it’s all over.” Chippy’s vines curled around Jerry, preventing him from moving any more. Now it was just a waiting game to see how long it took reinforcements to show up.

        “You’re making a big mistake,” Jerry muttered. Chippy brushed off his remark and waited for John to get them all out of this mess.

    After about half an hour or so of waiting, John’s reinforcements did show up and arrested more than eight-thousand men at the base. It turns out they weren’t super heavily armed, and just going under the radar was more their thing. John and Niko had been hogtied and thrown in a storage room, but it didn’t take the soldiers very long to find and free them. Charlie’s bullet wound had luckily missed all of his vital organs, so he got patched up by a small med team that had come with the soldiers. He was later brought to an interrogation where he spilled all of the information he knew about the Hamil Faction. Chippy and Jerry were found in a large room. Both of them looked pretty beat up and Jerry had been restrained with vines. The large, highly illegal killing machine was loaded onto a semi-truck and was being brought to another base a few miles away for further investigation. Jerry himself was put in handcuffs after Chippy broke away the vines. Well, he broke away what he could. He was having trouble getting the base of them to wither away, so Jerry would have a surgery later to remove the rest of them. He was thrown into the back of a car and brought away to another base, a base where he would be contained and treated just like any other anomalous subject.

        “He has a demon in him! Can’t you see? You’re letting the devil boss you all around!” Were the last words that Jerry said before he was driven off.

Chippy was given medical treatment and had quite a few bones broken here and there, likely due to the grenade blasts that he withstood. It turns out that through most of the fight, he was using his psychic powers to run and control his body since his bones had been broken without even realizing it. Due to his quick-healing properties though, he was cleared to leave after a few weeks of resting. In that time, John had managed to get some pretty poor footage of the fight from the broken cameras. The videos were very static and at some points it just went out completely, but John managed to see Killzor and hear a few of his words. After this, John wasn’t so sure if he didn’t believe what Chippy saw after taking that syringe anymore. He’d have to research myths and ancient texts to see if he could find anything that related to what Chippy had said.

        The Hamil Faction had been reduced to a few stray members trying to keep the dream alive; however, more and more were being arrested every day. It wouldn’t be long before it was entirely exterminated. D was being looked into more than ever, the threats that Jerry said that D gave him frightened all of those at ASI, however none of them ever came to fruition. D disappeared like a ghost, and nobody could figure out where or who he was. After a few months of investigation, he was theorized to be an old member of ASI that had his own agenda now, however there wasn’t any real evidence to prove that theory. Approximately twenty-eight days after Chippy’s fight with Jerry, Niko and John picked him up and told him it was time to go “home.”

        “Only a few minutes until we get there, Chippy. Aren’t you excited?” Niko turned back to look at Chippy even though she was driving. Neither him nor John were concerned, though. Chippy looked out the window of the helicopter and saw a suburban town with all of life’s necessities. There were a few stores, some schools, plenty of houses and a few entertainment attractions to be seen such as a movie theater. Despite all of this, though, He still felt sad knowing that this was goodbye. ASI had given him a GED, a social security number, a birth certificate, a driver’s license, and a car to boot. John had signed him up for driver’s ed classes before giving it to him; so he’d learn the ways of the road soon enough.

        “Promise you guys will come visit sometime, okay?” John and Niko smiled, they’d make sure to follow through with Chippy’s request.

        “I’ll visit very often. I’m sure John will do his best, too.” This made Chippy feel a little better; he was glad to know that they wouldn’t forget about him.

        “I guess retirement just wasn’t in the cards for me, huh? It’s a shame Jerry turned out to be a psychotic murderer.” John wasn’t entirely upset about not retiring, though. Chippy had been a living reminder that this job didn’t have to be all serious, and, if he allowed it, he could even make friends and have fun with them.

        “You’re sixty, John. You’ve gotta step down at some point.” Niko was slightly concerned about John’s health. She knew that the stress of the job had to be high, but ASI also had some of the best medical treatment in the world. If anything did happen to him, he’d be well taken care of.

        “I’ve got a few years left in me, as well as a few things that I’d personally like to investigate. I’ll find someone to make the leader, I promise.” Neither Chippy or Niko were completely reassured by this, John was the type of person to work until the day he died. There wasn’t anything they could do, though, so they’d just have to wait and see.

        “There it is! Look at it, Chippy! Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a main floor, a basement and an attic. Not so shabby for a first house, huh?” Chippy looked down at his new dwelling and marveled at the size. Sure, it wasn’t a mansion or anything, but it was still very generous for someone John had met just a couple of months ago.

        As Niko directed the helicopter down, John went on to describe the location.

        “We’re in Tangerine, Florida. It’s nothing massive, but it’s still a great start for a life. You have everything you need around you, and please, by no means think you have to stay here. Once you find a job and save up some money, you can go wherever you like. Think of this as a thank-you, Chippy. You really brought meaning back to my life.” The helicopter reached the ground and Niko shut it off. She got out along with Chippy, but John just changed seats to the driver’s seat. She couldn’t have gotten tired of driving, could she?

        “Oh, yeah, one more thing. Although we’re great friends, I can’t quite trust an anomalous subject to just live on their own, if you know what I mean. Niko will be staying with you, paid of course. Think of her as a supervisor, she’ll make sure you don’t do anything stupid.” Chippy first felt some shock, but then smiled in joy.

        “You’re gonna stay here?” Chippy couldn’t believe it, one of his friends was just going to stay with him forever?

        “We discussed it for a while, and decided that it’d be best. She doesn’t seem too hesitant about staying, either.” This was John’s final surprise for Chippy. He knew that he had a thing for Niko from when they very first met her. Maybe if they stayed together for a while, their friendship would grow into something more.

        “It’s better than the apartment I was staying at. Plus, I get to stay with my friend and get paid for it? It’s a win-win to me.” Chippy was so relieved. Not only was he getting a great start to life, but he wouldn’t be lonely, either.

        “I’d love to stay and give you a tour of the house, but I have a mysterious island that I need to lead the investigation of. Enjoy your new life, Chippy. You too, Niko. Goodbye!" John began to raise the helicopter and waved at the two as he did.

        "Bye, John!" Chippy waved back, Niko did the same.

        "Later, bossman!" Niko called out. John smiled as he pushed the controls forward. He flew off into the distance, finally parting ways with Chippy.

Chippy turned to his new house, then looked at Niko.

        "You'll have to teach me how to do this normal life thing, I'm pretty inexperienced." Niko chuckled after he said this, however.

        "I'm not so great at it either. Last time I tried, I ended up being a pilot for a secret organization." Chippy smiled and then looked back at the house.

        "We'll have to learn together." Chippy and Niko then walked towards their new home. Chippy didn't know what was in store for him, but he did know one thing for certain.

        It was time for Chippy to begin his adventure.

    Jerry stared up at the ceiling of his cell. It was blank white and was divided into squares and had exactly thirty-six of them, just like almost every other cell in the building. He couldn’t remember how many times he had counted the squares, but he found himself doing it once more. This time of day was always boring, nobody was allowed out of their cell no matter how passive or threatening they may be. It had something to do with cleanup, but Jerry would much rather assist with that than be locked in here with nothing to do.

        His bed was like that of one you may find in a hotel. He was granted a small stall with a toilet inside to do his business in privacy, as well as a sink just outside with some off-brand soap for him to use. Showers took place every day and he was closely monitored during them to make sure he didn’t do anything stupid, something he could do without. Life was boring, but at least he was alive.

        “What a failure I am.” Jerry repeated that phrase to himself daily. He wondered what his ancestors would say if they met him and saw what he did with their precious Hamil Faction.

        “On top of all of it, now I’m a subject myself.” Jerry glanced at his bicep to see the two vines poking out of it. It turned out that they had connected to his heart in some way and surgery to remove them had proven to be too risky and expensive. Now, they grew steadily over time like hair and he had to get them cut once they got too long. If he tugged on them, he could feel pressure in his chest, so he tried to be careful with them. He had actually developed a slight bond with them himself, he could command them to flop over to one side or the other. He hoped that with time, he may be able to control them like Chippy was able to. It’d be a cool party trick, at least.

        “What am I thinking? I’m not going to any parties any time soon.” Jerry plopped his head back down on his pillow and stared up at the tiles once more.

        “Jerry, you have someone wanting to talk to you on your personal phone.” Jerry turned his head over and saw a guard standing outside his cell with his phone. This was D again, wasn’t it?

        “Give it here.” Jerry got out of his bed and stuck his hand out of the cell. The guard gave him the phone and kept careful watch over him.

        “Hello? Who is it?” Jerry already knew who it was, but he figured he might as well make sure.

        “You know exactly who it is, Jerry. I’d like to speak in private, so another subject’s about to get loose right now.” Once D finished speaking, Jerry could hear a clunking noise somewhere to the right of his cell, then the guard that watched him turned his head in that direction.

        “Hey! Get back in there!” He ran off to where the noise came from, chasing after the escapee. Jerry wasn’t surprised by this, D had shown that he had control over everything several times by now.

        “Setting up all this just to speak with you, you must feel special, hm?” D taunted Jerry again, which he was tired of. Could this guy ever just get to the point?

        “I’m sure you're busy, so I’ll keep this short. I really could have leaked all of ASI’s information when you failed me, I had the big red button right in front of me to broadcast it to every TV on Earth, but I decided against it. I figured that you just straight-up failing instead of disobeying didn’t count.” While Jerry was glad that D didn’t leak everything, he wasn’t so sure if he cared much anymore. Why would he care about the organization that was containing him?

        “Is that all you wanted to say?” Jerry wasn’t sure why he wanted the call to end, he just didn’t like D. He’d rather go back to counting his ceiling tiles.

        “Nope, I have a few more things I’d like to say. First off, I guess it’s as the old saying goes. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself. I’ll be going after Chippy myself now, I’m not sure if I can keep you updated on my exploits, but I’ll try.” Jerry rolled his eyes, D and he both knew that he didn’t care.

        “Why do you want Chippy so bad? We have more powerful subjects than him sitting around in cells.” D let out one of his infamous chuckles, was Jerry wrong about something?

        “I don’t want Chippy, per se. What I want is what’s inside of him. I saw the footage of Killzor myself, and that’s what I’ve wanted this whole time. I knew he had the potential to be a conduit for him, I just didn’t know it would happen this early.” Jerry recalled the demon that assisted Chippy in his fight against him. That was Killzor, right? He couldn’t imagine why D would want a demon, did he think he could enslave it? If so, he was horribly wrong.

        “Be careful around that thing, he’s stronger than you think.” D laughed again, this time at the thought that something could outmatch him.

        “I know all about Killzor. As soon as I get Chippy, I can use Killzor to—hey, stop pulling on my leg! Get off!” Jerry could hear D struggling, he wondered what may be pulling on him.

        “You got a dog or something?” D was eerily silent for a moment after Jerry said this. He was figuring out the words he wanted to say.
        “No, it’s a child. It’s a sort of… complicated adoption situation. You know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t you?” It only took Jerry a few seconds to realize what D meant. His eyes went wide in the horrible realization.

        “You… You’re the one that took John’s son! You’re the kidnapper from five years ago!” Had Jerry known this guy was the 2001 kidnapper, he would’ve never worked for him.

        “Bingo! John’s son is another part of my plan, but I don’t think I’ll reveal it to you in its entirety quite yet. I’m sure you’ll see it on TV once it’s through, though. If you have a TV in that cell of yours, that is.” Jerry began to freak out. D was the menace that stole John’s kid five years ago, he was talking to this pathetic excuse for a man right now. He hated to think like this, but if he was able to reveal it to the rest of ASI, it might just be enough to get him free.

        “You’d better not be trying to contact anyone!” Jerry could hear the guard coming back to his cell, he must’ve caught the subject that got out.

        “It sounds like our time’s being cut short. I decided to make this call untraceable as well as make any playback of it all static. Nobody else will hear our special little conversation, and I doubt anyone will believe you if you try to tell them you know where John’s son is. It’s a sensitive topic, you know? Not even your connection to the Hamil Faction will make them believe you, all of the Hamil Faction is gone, anyway. I’ll talk to you later, Jerry. Have fun in that cell! Oh, one more thing. That money? I never had it. Ha!” D hung up and Jerry was in complete shock. The guard finally reached the front of his cell again and held out his hand for Jerry to put the phone in. While he was disappointed at the money not ever actually existing, he was even more scared about the man who had broken into an ASI base and captured the boss’s son.

        “Listen, guard! You have to believe me! I just talked to the guy that stole John’s son! He has him with him right now!” Jerry frantically tried to make the guard believe him, but he wasn’t buying it.

        “Give me the phone and stop trying to escape. We’ll listen to the recording and see if you’re telling the truth.” Jerry gave the guard his phone, but it didn’t stop his worried rambling.

        “No! It’ll be static! You have to believe me, this was the guy!” The guard began to walk away, ignoring what Jerry said.

        “Even if it is him, static ain’t gonna do us no good. You’re the one that’s clinically insane, though. I doubt anyone’s gonna believe that story.” The guard walked out of Jerry’s sight, he really didn’t care at all.

        “They aren’t even going to report what I said to John, they’re just gonna play the audio, hear nothing, then leave it at that. These idiots!” Jerry collapsed on his bed and punched his pillow in a fit of rage. D had gotten to him one final time, giving him just the slightest inkling of an idea as to what he may do.

        “He wants Killzor for something, but what? How does John’s son fit into all this? I have to get out of here! I have to tell John!” Jerry looked around for an escape, but he soon realized he had done this every day before as well. He wasn’t getting out. His story was never getting out.

        “I’ll see it on TV? What is he going to do?” Jerry shuddered at what a man with full knowledge and inside power over ASI could do. Whatever it was, it would be a disaster.

        To be continued in Chippy’s Adventure: Dude Industries