Chapter One
I am running. I need to get to my destination for reasons unknown to me. The only problem is that I have no idea where I am. It is very dark and I am wading through water which is restricting my running. I find a ladder heading up toward a hole in the sky. I must be in a tunnel. I climb the ladder…

I am woken up from my dream unexpectedly. A light shines in my eyes as I open them. In a room like a surgery room gone extreme with high tech gadgets surrounds me as I lie in a bed that is elevated off the floor. I feel a very large bump on the back of my head as I try to remember where I was last. I can’t. It feels weird though. I don’t feel like I’m in the right place. I don’t belong here and must escape. Panic fills me as a gloved man approaches with a lethal looking tool.

He is walking toward me like he is intending to use that thing on me. As he stares at me with evil eyes, I immediately want to run as fast as I can. Before I react, there is a sharp pinch in my arm. Someone is injecting a neon green liquid into my arm, causing a slight burning sensation. I now know that I don’t want to be in this place. The strange man is still coming toward me with that horrid tool. Nothing good will happen to me if I stay here.

Beside me he raises the tool over his head ready to jab into me. As he stabs down, I roll off the bed and onto the floor. I grab a tool from a table nearby that looks like it could do some damage. The man seems very surprised as if I wasn’t supposed to move. I feel powerful like I could do anything. The man’s surprise suddenly turns into rage. He charges with his weapon and takes a swipe at my head. As my senses take over, I duck and somersault away from the man. He pivots on the spot and charges again. I roll out of his attack.

A small faint voice in my head tells me to get to higher ground. I dash towards the bed, going at an incredible speed at least 60 miles per hour in a dead sprint; I jump onto the bed and wait. The man dashes to me almost as fast as I did. He strikes at my ankles with such force that I am barely able to block it with my weapon. His weapon gets stuck onto mine, and he tries to pull it away. In that instant, I kick him hard in the face. With a grunt, he crumples to the ground. I know that I have knocked him out. I get a good look at his weapon finally. It looks like an axe with a lot of spikes on the sides of the blade. It’s made of a black metal and it feels cold to the touch. I pick it up and look at the man’s crumpled body. I could kill him right here. He did try to kill me, he deserves it. I did nothing to him. I don’t even know how I got here or where “here” is for that matter. However looking at the defenseless body I know that I won’t be able to kill him.

The other doctor that injected me with the liquid is nowhere to be found. She must have gone to get help which means that I probably have at most two minutes to get out of here before an alarm is sounded.

I open the door leading out of the room. I check down both ways of the hall making sure the coast is clear. On a gut feeling I go left, passing a couple of offices along the way. I veer right and come upon an exit sign.
It can’t be that easy there has to be some precautions in a place like this. Then again, the look on the man’s face made it seem like I wasn’t supposed to move at all, like I was supposed to be paralyzed. These powers that have just come to me, like they were a natural occurrence, make it seem like there should be high security. But how did I get all of these powers? Why was I being tested on? I might not know anything about my past but I know that these powers are not new. The man also seemed to have some powers. I need to find answers.

The same voice that told me to get to high ground tells me to check my pockets. It’s weird though. I’m not surprised that I’m hearing this voice. It feels natural. I slip my hand in my pocket and find a piece of paper in it. The paper reads: Three blocks east of Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, California. You’ll figure out where. Hurry!

I feel happy, when I see Sacramento, like I’m going home. Who knows, maybe I am?

Chapter Two

I walk out of the building into a bustling city. There are cars driving all around. People are walking to their destinations. Hotdog vendors try to sell their products. Somehow I know I am in Manhattan.

I walk into the streets and look behind me to see the building from the outside. There is a sign that reads: Manhattan Genetic Testing Facility, which confirms that I am in Manhattan. It looks to be a four story building with plants climbing up the walls. The brick building looks aged. There are missing bricks and an old gargoyle on the corner of the roof.

Walking down the street, I think about how I am going to get to Sacramento. I don’t have any money to pay for a flight. If I have enough stamina I could run there, but that has to be about 3,000 miles away.

The evening approaches and I find a corner in an alley way to sleep in. I fall asleep immediately.

I am in a tunnel running towards a ladder in the sky. A foul smelling liquid floods the floor. Some boy behind me is struggling through the tunnel. He calls out for me to slow down. The ladder is getting closer now. I have to get there as fast as I can. The boy seems to be limping on his right leg. He looks familiar. I know him but I don’t know from where. I stumble through the liquid and fall…

The loud sound of a car horn wakes me up I stand up and look around. My stomach rumbles with ferocity and I realize that I haven’t eaten since I woke up in the lab.
I pass a store with TVs all around when I hear my name. A headline says “16-year-old escaped from a government testing facility” and a picture of me flashes over the headline. My name, Brian Smith, is over the picture. I know that I have to leave Manhattan right now.

Chapter Three
I feel a slight tap on my shoulder. My heart stops. How could I have been so careless, to let someone sneak up on me? I feel dread. I am going to die and not even know who I am.
I decide to make a run for it I can outrun anyone now, except for the man. It’s a risky idea though; I could bring attention to myself to all of Manhattan. I check around my shoulder to see a boy about my age. The voice in my head tells me to trust him. He has a huge grin on his face. I realize that he’s the boy from my dream.
“Looks like I found you finally,” the boy says. “Where did you go?”
“Umm… Who are you?” I ask
A look of grief appears on his face. “Oh god you woke up at MGTF, didn’t you,” he says, “and I’m your best friend.”
“Yeah, that is what happened.”
“We’ve got to get to HQ, fast.”
He grabs my hand and then I am gone. I’m nowhere and everywhere at the same time I am spread apart into a trillion pieces at least. All of me is bouncing around in supersonic speed. Then as soon as it started, it is over.

Chapter Four
“Sorry about that. I tried to get us to HQ, but I got so tired, I had to stop,” the boy said.
“How did you do that?” I respond.
“Oh, yeah I can teleport by rearranging molecules in one spot and moving them to another.”
I look around and see a little sign that says “Welcome to Kingsbury, NV”
“Okay, we’re in Nevada,” I say.
“We need to get to Sacramento,” the boy replies.
“How far is that?” I ask.
“109 miles,” he says pointing to a road sign. “We can run there”
“How long will that take?”
“Probably two hours,” he replies. “We all have great speed.”
We start sprinting towards Sacramento at 60 miles per hour. We pass a large lake after couple of minutes, but we pass it so quickly I am not able to admire it. While running I think about my past. Some memories are beginning to come back to me. I remember getting my powers through genetic alteration. They aren’t really powers so much as enhanced abilities.

Chapter Five
We arrive in a forest with a National Park sign. There are trees everywhere standing straight, swaying in the slight breeze. The leaves rustle, birds chirp, and squirrels and other small animals are scurrying through the forest. I want to stop and stay here for a long time. The tranquility of this place makes me forget that I am wanted, just teleported over 2,000 miles, and am running as fast as a car.
Soon we exit the forest and enter a flat desert. I can feel excitement in my stomach so I know we are getting close. I am kicking up a bunch of sand behind me making a slight sandstorm.
We are nearing a large city which I immediately recognize as Sacramento. I feel a sense of security. I know that I have lived here, but I don’t know when or for how long. We start to slow down when we are a mile away from the city. I see that the sun is just beginning to rise above the horizon.
Suddenly, I realize that I don’t even know my companion’s name even though we traveled across the country together.
“What is your name?” I ask.
“James,” he replies.
“Ok James, where are we going?”
“This way,” he says pointing to the right.
We head off in that direction and I get the feeling that I am being followed, I push that thought away and continue walking. We take a left after walking a couple of blocks. I see a large white building ahead of us. A sign reads Mercy General Hospital in front of the building. We get to the building and we take a right again to get to the street named Mission Way. We go down the street and reach the house.
It is a two story house with walls made of brick. Three windows in the front surround a door in the center of the house. A porch is in the front of the house with a mat that says “Welcome” on it. A rocking chair with a pillow embroidered with Home Sweet Home sits on the porch. The house reminds me of what a grandma’s house would look like. James opens the door without knocking and walks in.

Chapter Six
There are tables covered with computers, monitors, and other miscellaneous electronics all over the place. A man sits at a computer searching the web.
“I found him!” James yells.
The man turns around and my heart skips a beat. It’s the man from the testing facility. The voice that I have grown accustomed to speaks to me again. This time, however, it’s more like he’s right beside me talking than whispering. It tells me to trust the man.
“Welcome home Brian,” the man says.
“Who are you?” I ask questioningly.
“Oh, I see the problem,” the man replies. “You’ve lost your memory.”
The man grasps my hand and I begin to remember my past. I remember finding this house when I was 11 and the man, who I now remember to be Edward, took me in. I remember receiving my abilities from the man in the testing facility. Suddenly the memories stop coming and I am left even more confused than I was before.

“The man who gave me my abilities tried to kill me,” I say.

“Yes, that is my twin brother, Erik,” the man replies. “He discovered the element that gave us our abilities, but he wanted to use them for evil. I refused and fought him away. He is now trying to bring us down. You were captured and he tried to kill you, but we have people on the inside. The doctor that injected you with the paralyzer was actually with us. She injected you with a placebo colored with neon green food coloring, instead of the paralyzer.”

“But he was easy to beat; since he came up with the element shouldn’t he have been the most powerful?” I ask.

“In theory yes, he should have. However, he is still very weak because he uses his abilities for evil. He thinks that the abilities will not fail him, but he needs to train them. He thinks that he is the most powerful because he doesn’t understand that they need to be trained in order to work at their full potential.”

“How many of us are there?”
“There are about one hundred of us scattered across the world, searching for you.”

I feel guilty for getting caught. All of my friends are probably risking their lives to find me and I am safely at HQ.

“Was it your voice that I heard all the time giving me advice?” I ask.

“Yes, I am a telepath,” Edward replied. “I could tell what you were doing, but I couldn’t tell where. That is why it took awhile for us to find you.”

Chapter Seven

I lay on a table in the middle of a room, in the underground chambers of the house that cannot be seen. I have regained all of my memory leading up to getting captured by Erik’s men. Edward is about to finish giving me my memory. I am looking forward to knowing my own story fully.

Edward raises his hand, and I begin to regain my memory, as I have daily for the past week.

I am running down an alley at top speed, which is probably about sixty-five to seventy miles per hour. There are three men I don’t recognize chasing after me. They seem to be just as fast as me and they don’t seem like they are planning on letting me leave. I take a turn and pass a dumpster. I wave my hand and use telekinesis to tip the dumpster over. One of the men punch the dumpster, and it goes sailing into the air. Before I can react, I am bombarded with unbearable pain. Then I wake up in Erik’s lab.

Back in the house, I am pleased that I have all of my memory back. I have one more question in the back of my head.

“I had these visions a couple of times when I was asleep. They seemed like they were more than just dreams,” I say.

“I believe you saw into the future. I didn’t know you possessed this ability. I suppose that it could be possible that you are developing something new,” replies Edward.

“Well, if that’s the case, then James and I are going on a very important mission in the sewers.” I say. “And I think it might mean the end to Erik.”

“Well then, we should get ready.”