Heroes Storybook

The man who was apparently imaginary took hold of her arm and pulled her into the back of the car.

Chloe blinked as the car sped off once more.

"Umm, this could sound very strange, and I am not being rude but, are you real?"

She directed the question to the "imaginary person".

"That is a very good question." said the man in the front of the car.

It was at this point that Chloe noticed that the car itself was slightly fuzzy.

"Is this car imaginary?" She asked.

"No, but it is... alive." answered the woman who was driving.

"I see. I am sorry, but who are you exactly?"

"I am Sable, this is Marianne and that is Janus."

The imagineary man grinned at her. "Ok. I am Chloe. Can anyone tell me what is going on?"

~SishBee~x
x

Motel Six, Omaha Nebraska

Peter flopped down on the bed. "My god that was tough...that guy was impossible to take down. You'd think getting super strength would give you a boost, not a drop."

"Come on! All you had to do was touch him." Erica scoffed, plopping next to him.

"It takes a lot out of you. And god, if I wasn't careful I could have gotten beaten to a pulp." He curled up into a ball and began to fake snore.

"Well, I'm going to go take a shower. No turning invisible, stopping time, or what ever the crap else you could do to see me naked. Trust me, I might not have a power, but I can still whoop your ass." She smiled and headed off for the bathroom.

"If only she knew that I don't have invisibilty." Peter smiled and yawned at the same time. He was always tired after a leeching. "A quick nap would be nice..." Peter closed his eyes and he soon dozed off.

(Dream)

"Come on Erica! They're coming!" Peter screamed over the loud rumbling of footsteps behind him. He could already see the Company army massing, the members of the army that could fly zipping around the tops of the buildings like flys. Already they had taken over much of San Fransico for the "safekeeping of the people."

"I can't. My legs broken. Go! If they find me it's not the end of the world as it would be if they found you." Peter turned and began to run but hesitated. "I said go!"

"I love you Erica. I'm not leaving you."

"That wasn't a request. The Company Army is after you. This is no time to think about love. The fate of the world is on your shoulders. Leave me." Peter nodded and ran, tears welling up in his eyes.

Peter stumbled on, using what little power of teleportaion he had left to make his way to the base. "Marianne, open the goddamn door!" He screamed into his walkie-talkie.

"Oh god..." Peter heard her say. "Where the heck is Erica?"

"She...fell behind." Peter watched the door open and ran inside once it was opened far enough.

"I'm so sorry." Marianne tried to comfort Peter but he smacked her arm away.

"I don't need pity. I need to fight. And it looks like we're getting just that." Peter turned around to face the wall. "They're coming." A voice boomed inside Peter's head.

"The Company wants you Peter. Turn yourself in and no one gets hurt."

"That's a lie Clhoe. All the Company wants now is to kill us simply because we oppose what they do. We're all doomed, even you!"

"No. They can't take down there own leader. Here, have your friend back." Peter looked up with a start. A bloody torn body flew down from the sky, landing on Peter.

"OH GOD!" Erica's dead face looked at him, spilling blood all over his face.

The voice spoke again. "The war of the Evolved has come."

(End Dream)

Peter sat up with start. "OH MY GOD!" Peter sat up with a start. He began panting and shaking. "Only a dream, only a dream." Peter tried to tell himself. His eyes met something on the wall. It was his face. As he began to look at the wall he realized he had painted his dream. That meant it was real. The war of the Evolved was coming.

Desmond: London

*It would appear the subjects have temporarily evaded us.*

Desmond glared at the message from his subordinate. It annoyed him that the incompetence of his lessers forced him to dirty his hands. He turned off the phone, if it rang at an inopportune time it could prove...devastating.

He waited in silence as the sound of steps approached the door. The knob turned and the man walked into the room, seeming to be thoroughly surprised.

"Who the he..."

"Commisioner, I'm here from MI5 to act as your liason in a joint effort to capture a group of terrorists acting from nearby."

"Are you serious? You come here to tell me there's an ongoing investigation, in my area of jurisdiction, and you're only bringing me in on it now?

"You know how inter-departmental relations are sir. What matters now is that you will be able to help in the capture of two of the greatest threats to national security we currently face."

The other man looked pensive for a moment, before an inborn wariness overtook him. "I think I need to authenticate all of this, what's your section chief's line?"

"Of course sir," Desmond rattled off a list of numbers and then, as the commisioner bent to tap at the phone, leant across the desk. Pulling an eighteen inch blade from his sleeve, he effortlessly slit the man's throat.

After hiding the body beneath the desk, Desmond examined his face in a mirror he kept with him at all times.

"This will do wonderfully" congratulated the commisioner's face from the mirror.

Within twenty minutes, a report had been filed for the arrest of Sable Smith and Maianne Saunders.

The crew: Outside Hitchen

"Janus since when the hell could you move things in the real world?"

The young man smiled back at Sable, both mischievous and harried, "it means I'm...breaking through."

"Breaking through? What is this Alien 3?" queried the woman clling herself Chloe.

Sable felt a touch of jealousy at Chloe addressing his companion, but remained silent, as the point was a valid one.

"Alright alright. Sable I haven't been completely honest with you."
"You've been damn uninformative Janus, that's what you've been."

"Do you have the photo Sable?" Janus took it from him, glancing almost lovingly at the photo of himself. "Probably one of the first ever taken, that's why the focus is so poor.

"Alright Janus, exposition time, who are you and what the heck do you know about what's going on?"

"Fine Sable, nows aa good a time as any, though I'm going to have to repeat myself when we find our warrior."

"What?"

"Guys," Anne, undoubtedly feeling left out of the conversation, drew their attention to the radio, you better hear this.

"And now for a special news bulletin brought to you on behalf of Commisioner Renkin."

Marianne Saunders. Outside Hitchen.

"We are warning everyone to be on the look out for two high profile criminals, Sable Smith and Marianne Saunders. They will possibly have taken on false identitys and are highly dangerous. This report will be followed by a description of each and if you see them we urge you to call the police..." The broad-cast lasted another few minutes but Anne was already urging the car to pull over.

"What are we going to do, where can we go?" Anne asked worriedly, watching the road warily for traffic.

"First we have to ditch this car, that was the license plate number," Sable replied, already pushing his door open. "Can you ask it to keep driving without us in?"

"Who are you calling an 'it' and why don't you ask me yourself?" the car demanded.

"The car... talks?" Chloe asked.

"There isn't time for this, drive on, head home if you can." Marianne patted the steering wheel, almost fondly, and then slipped out of the car.

Chloe was completely overwhelmed. One minute she had been running away down a road which no one knew about. Then suddenly, fate had thrown her into this strange situation.

She stared as the car drove off. Turning around she looked at Janus.

She frowned, "Janus. You are getting clearer."

Anne and Sable looked at her as though she was mad and she clearly heard Anne's immagination saying "I wonder if she is just mad?"

"No. I am not mad! He is getting clearer."

Sable looked at Janus and Anne looked into the space where she guessed he was.

Janus looked a little sheepish. "I told you I was breaking through."

Chloe's mind was racing. Was he becoming real? Where was she? Who were these people? Why were they being chased? Was it just because they were like her? And why on earth had the car talked?

Her thoughts overwhelmed her, and she feignted.

~SishBee~
x

"Alright Janus, what do you know about the people who are following us?"
"Can't we wait until she wakes up...this would be a little simpler." Janus indicated Chloe, who Sable had hefted easily over one shoulder as the small group trudged through the snow.
"What did he say?" asked Anne.

Sable ignored her for a moment, "No. For twenty years you've tried to banter with me despite, despite the fact that you knew it was breaking me, now it's your turn to tell me something useful."

"Alright, alright, I suppose this all seems a little...crazy, and I guess an exposition of some kind is in order."
Sable turned to Anne, "He says he knows something about what's going on and is going ito tell us."
"Good because I'm about this close to calling that police hotline,” growled Marianne.
“Don’t worry about that, she’s just a little put out that she can’t see me,” said Janus nonchalantely.
“Damn it boy are you trying to annoy me?”

“Alright, they’re following you because they work for a company who has a specific interest in the genetically advanced. Normally this takes a little time to get used to but the fact that you’re chatting to your imaginary friend either means you have an unnatural ability or that you’re crazy enough to believe me. Either is expedient.”

“Right.” Sable had never heard Janus talk with such eloquence before, nor with such fervour.

“They see people like you, though with very different abilities, as a threat, and either recruit, disarm or destroy those that they find. Ultimately they see your...group, as a weapon or tool for advancing their goal, which is merely to gain more power.”
“You realise that I’d have to be crazy to believe you?”

“You’ve been sitting in a talking car driven by a friend you only met because your imaginary associate told you where to find her. The three of you all talk to things that seemingly aren’t real. Either you’re crazy or crazy is just the reality you happen to live in.”

“Touche.”

“What’s he saying?” Asked Marianne who seemed to be looking around as though imminent danger law over the next snowdrift.
“Did you ever see the X-men movies?”

“Um...yes.”

“Ok we seem to be basically stuck in that, except with no school and lots of bad guys.”
Sable turned back to Janus, “So what’s your story?”

“Another time Sable, let’sconcentrate of escaping our current pursuers and finding ourselves a warrior.”

They trudged on.

* Sishbee I fixed mine, can you do yours? we mixed up about the car thing, though mine was more obvious*

I thought we ditched the car...

Chloe woke up with a splitting headache. 'Ow, where am I?'

Sable stopped and slid her off his shoulder to lean her up against a tree.

'Oh, I remember now.' she smiled weakly.

'Okay, now she is awake would you care to re-explain to her what is going on?' Sable said to Janus.

Janus shrugged, 'Sure. It's easier talking to someone else who can see you.'

~SishBee~
x

Peter's head whirled. "If that was a premonition then..." He looked towards the bathroom in which Erica was. "She dies..." The image of a girl...Clhoe, the leader of the Company forces, appeared in his head. She would have to die. They all would. If no one was left there would be no one to kill Erica.

"Oh my god!" Peter spun around. Erica stood a few feet away from him with a white towel wrapped around her. "What are you, some kind of sicko murderer?" She pointed at the image of her face with the holes in it and the blood running down it.

"No. I have pre-cognation. One of my gifts. That happens." Erica looked ready to barf.

"When?"

"I don't know..." Peter's eyes met a small scrap of paper the painted Peter had in his pocket. It had a date on it. "It happens sometime after March...of this year."

Chloe listened in amazement.

Then she began to wonder, maybe the company wasn't so bad. If they just wanted to recruit them...

And anyway, she wan't running from the company, she was running from the scientists at one of the Universties. She scowled as she remembered them pinning her to a table and trying to inject her. She still marvelled at how she had managed to escape.

By now Janus had finished speaking and Chloe looked up. A strange image passed in front of her eyes. Someone was imagining her, as the head of the company.

~SishBee~
x

Marianne Saunders.

"Crowds, crowds. We need crowds," Marianne murmured as she led the others through the streets of London towards a large shopping centre.

"Why am I still with you?" Chloe wondered. "They're not looking for me..." then she shook her head and smiled. "Actually it's okay." Marianne turned to look at her, quite confused. She did not look scared. Sh looked almost as if she were excited, as if she wanted them to be caught? Ridiculous.

"We should stay together," Sable decided. "We're going to need a base and a way to find out if there are others like us and..."

"Wait," Marianne protested. "We can't just leave our lives like this - or at least I can't - I think we need to get clear, lay low for a bit and then go home."

"They have our details," Sable said simply. Marianna nodded morosely.

"Good point."

Sable-London

"I like the idea of crowds Marianne, but not so much a mall or supermarket, they'd have cctv." Sable commented, "perhaps we should try to find a pub or something, with the police after us at the moment, we can't really afford to mingle in public view anyway."

Janus walked with his head turned toward the ground, occasionally rubbing his temple with his left hand, as if suffering from a headache. "Aye it's a good idea, by the looks of Sable's folder your usual haunts are out of bounds though." Sable passed the message on to Anne.

"Once I'm sure you're settled I'll go find one of the few others like you I know, who I...happened upon a few years ago. That will take me to hong kong."

Chloe's head was aching, there were so many people around and she could see and hear everything their immaginations came up with.

She felt a little dizzy then regained her composure and continued with the others.

"I have an idea." They stopped. "The company doesn't want me, so why don't we just use my old flat until we have worked something out?"

*All I've got, sorry!*

~SishBee~
x

*all right I'm tired of sitting on the side lines, I'm moving to england, what city are you guys in?*

Storm-

The cell-phone rang as Storm was just about to start eating. It was covered in scorch marks because she kept breaking the stupid thing. Sighing Storm set down her fork and picked up the phone.

"Yeah"

"It's Jeff. Storm I've got some new info on your next target."

Storm raised her eyebrows. "That's a surprise. Usually you just get the client's info for me. So, what is it?"

There was a pause in the background and Storm cursed mentally as she heard static start to gather on the phone. "They've moved the target. To England of all places, you're going to have to take a plane to get there. Since the thing's already in the air."

"Are you crazy!?" She pulled the phone away from her ear and glared at it, before continuing. "Airplanes and I do NOT mix. I break them, and then they crash. Almost every time I get on them. Give me one good reason why I should ever set foot on a plane."

"We get an extra five million dollars and the company's after your target too."

"I hate you so much right now." She was on the plane within the hour.

*LOL Storm has a liking for luxury*