The Eye of a god
Carl sighed and got up from his chair to leave his office. He had finally made a decision. He needed to do this.
As the man with the Daniel Cremieux jeans, Polo shirt and specialized contact lenses headed towards Nina’s office, he thought over the last six months. The last half-year had been a hard one for everyone in DCIS. Gary was still mourning the loss of Anna (as evidenced by the screams Carl had heard when he had gone to work in the early hours of the morning, to catch up on paperwork one time). Both Dr. Lee Rosen and Cameron Hicks were still reeling from the relatively recent news that Danielle Rosen who had even more recently been killed by Stanton Parish for being a mole for the government, had been the traitor in their organization, something that the rest of the team had only been made privy to about a week ago. Furthermore, pretty much everyone on the team was still shaken by the things Nina had done when she went on a binder with her abilities as she tried to run away from Dr. Rosen with her childhood friend, Tommy. That little episode hadn’t ended well for anyone, and although every member of Lee’s group felt betrayed and angered by Nina’s actions that day (especially Rachel, who Nina had forced to kiss her in order to incapacitate the Alpha with synesthesia abilities), it was Nina herself who had suffered the most from the fallout of that day’s events, which had occurred about a month ago. Nina had pretty much been the pariah of the group since then, despite the fact that Dr. Rosen had asked his team not to treat the mesmerizer any differently than before, and Carl was the only person in the DCIS office that still made small talk with Nina on occasion. Not that the green-eyed Alpha (who had been the only member of the group, other than Gary, that Nina hadn’t managed to push that day, due to the special contacts Skylar had given him) hadn’t been angry at Nina at the time. He had just forgiven the pusher for what she had done that day long before everyone else had been prepared to, a fact some of the other members of the group, including Cameron and Rachel, gave Carl hell for, even though the tracker Alpha had his own reasons for forgiving Nina so fast.
Carl’s personal suffering was of a different kind than Nina’s, or any other member of DCIS, for that matter. Other than the fact that Dr. Rosen had basically told Carl that he had no choice but to stay with DCIS if he didn’t want the NSA to hunt him down, his other problem had a name, and that name was Skylar Adams. In short, since the events at Alphaville, Carl hadn’t been able to get the beautiful, hazel-eyed Alpha out of his head. He couldn’t forget the way that she had looked at him from her picnic table. Couldn’t forget that the brunette had given him the device that had increased Charles’ control over his abilities to a remarkable level and almost eliminated the downside to his son’s ability. Or how she had tried to convince Carl that he was somehow special, apart from her Alpha ability. Or how Skylar was trying so hard to be a good mom to Zoe, despite the difficulties that the technopath had with human social interaction. Or a thousand other things about Skylar that Carl couldn’t get out of his head.
But most of all, the knowledge that Carl cared about Skylar enough that he had killed for her, that a person who had been alive six months ago was now dead because he had killed that individual in order to protect Skylar from harm, weighed heavily on Carl’s heart and mind. For all of these reasons, as well as the fact that both Carl and Nina were worried because Skylar hadn’t contacted them at all in the last six months, Skylar had been on his mind a lot lately.
To his credit, Carl didn’t usually think of Skylar when he was at home with his wife and child. Spending time with the two people that mattered most in the world to him, his blonde-haired, green-eyed son, and his voluptuous blonde-haired, blue-eyed wife, who, between crafting her sculptures and her love for Carl and Charles, was one of the most alive people that Carl had ever known, made Carl forget all of his troubles temporarily. In short, when he was spending time with Charles or Charlotte, his thoughts were only on them (expect when visons of Skylar appeared in his dreams, which happened regularly now), But at work, when Nina mentioned how worried she was about Skylar (which also happened regularly), or when Rosen mentioned how much help the technopath could provide the team while they were going against Stanton Parish, or for no reason at all, Carl would think of Skylar, and how he knew he cared about the athletic, brunette Alpha more than he should.
Whenever these daydreaming sessions happened, it would sometimes take hours for Carl to get his thoughts away from Skylar. Although Carl didn’t let his (sometimes impure) thoughts about the technopath keep him from getting his work done, the other members of Dr. Rosen’s team had noticed that something was going on with Carl, and Dr. Rosen had even pointed out in one of Mr. Webb’s therapy sessions that Carl seemed distracted lately, an observation that Carl had refused to comment on. The point, Carl knew, was that he could not let this go on. Could not let himself care about, perhaps even love, Skylar Adams so much that his thoughts dwelled on the technopath for at least a couple hours every workday. The tracker Alpha told himself it wasn’t decent for a married man to feel this strongly about a woman that wasn’t his wife.
It had to end.
And that decision weighed on Mr. Webb’s mind as he entered Nina’s cramped office without a word and sat on Gary’s bed, which hadn’t been moved since Nina returned to the team, because Gary hadn’t found a new place to live yet. The mesmerizer turned around from the chair in front of her desk to look at Carl with a raised eyebrow and said. “You know, Carl, I’m glad you are still talking to me and all, but I would appreciate it if you would at least knock before…”
Carl interrupted Nina while taking Skylar’s contacts out of his eyes. “I need you to push me, Nina.”
Nina’s expression was unreadable as she looked at Carl and replied. “I know you aren’t joking, since you took off the contacts Skylar gave you, but…I really can’t imagine why you would ask me to do something like that. You have always been so paranoid, a justified paranoia, I will grant you, as recent events have shown, about the possibility of me pushing you. Besides, you know I’m not allowed to push people anymore…”
Carl shook his head and gave his rebuttal. “For personal gain, no. But I’m asking you to do this. Just like Dr. Rosen has asked you push other people for his own agenda. So please, if not as part of my team, then as my friend, I’m asking you to push me. We are friends, aren’t we, Nina?”
Nina sighed. “Of course we are, Carl. Fine, tell me why you want me to push you, and I’ll consider it.”
Carl’s eyes shifted from side to side for several seconds before he finally looked down at the floor, as far away from Nina’s gaze as he could and said. “I need you to force me not to have…feelings for Skylar Adams anymore.”
Nina smirked. “So Bill and I were right about you being sweet on a certain tech expert, huh? I guess I win the office pool concerning when you would finally admit that fact to someone out lou…”
Carl glared at Nina. “This isn’t funny, Nina. I’ve been having…inappropriate thoughts and feelings about Skylar for the past few months…feelings a married man really shouldn’t have. I love my wife, Nina, and I know I shouldn’t be thinking this way about another woman and I…I just want it to stop. I know this is awkward, me admitting that I have feelings for your friend and that I want them erased but…”
Nina laughed. “Don’t worry, Carl. With some of the things I’ve seen and experienced in my life, one of my friends crushing on another barely hits two out ten on the weird scale for me. If anything, your confession just lets me know you have good taste in women. I should know, bexause Skylar and I were...together a few times, when we still spending time together years ago and…”
Carl help up his hand while mentally trying to block out all the naughty, tantalizing thoughts about Nina and Skylar being naked and together that Nina’s words were making him visualize. “Stop. I don’t want to know. I’m not judging…either of you for whatever you and Skylar may have done together in the past, but that’s your personal business that I would rather not know about. And it’s beside the point of this discussion. I just want my feelings for her to go away.”
Nina shook her head. “That’s not how my pushing ability works, Carl. You know that better than anyone. The suggestions I put in people’s minds are temporary, so even if I did what you asked, your feelings for Skylar would return within a few hours…”
Carl sighed. “I know that, Nina. I just thought that, if you used your pushing ability on me two or three times every work day for a couple of months, that eventually the suggestion might sink in and my feelings for Skylar might go away permanently. So I would appreciate it if you would stop making any more innuendos or jokes at my expense and push my feelings for Skylar away. Please.”
Nina frowned. “And what, exactly, is so wrong with you have feelings for Skylar, Carl? She’s a good person, a good mom, and a good friend, on top of being beautiful and intelligent. Who could blame a guy for liking a woman like that?”
Carl tried to open his mouth to protest Nina’s words, but the mesmerizer would have none of it as she continued to speak. “You’re a good man too, Carl. Whether you believe that or not. Everyone in this office know that you love your wife and kid, alright? Everyone who knows you knows you wouldn’t cheat on Charlotte. Ever. It’s not like you are having an affair, Carl. You are feeling way too much guilt over nothing.”
The green-eyed man shook his head. “Please. My feelings for Skylar are a distraction and…”
Nina glared mildly at Carl as she spoke. “I’m going to do you a favor and not tell Skylar you said that the next time I hear from her. You are a red blooded male and Skylar is an attractive woman. It’s perfectly natural for you to have fantasies about her. There is nothing wrong with them. And because there is nothing actually wrong with you…I’m not going to push you, Carl. I’m sorry.”
Carl glared at Nina for a long moment. “So…you are willing to push people for your own benefit. Willing to push when Dr. Rosen tell you to. But you won’t push your friend when he asks you to as a favor. Good to know.”
Carl rolled his eyes as he left the room and said in a sarcastic tone. “You’re a real great friend, Nina. So glad we had this talk.”
Carl left Nina’ office and closed the door before the mesmerizer could reply. The truth was, the tracker Alpha already felt horrible about how he had treated Nina just a moment ago, but he was still too angry at Nina’s refusal to help him to apologize. Which means that he was already on edge when Cameron Hicks walked up to Carl from his office, stared right into Carl’s eyes, and said. “You’re still great pals with Nina, I see. Just dropping by to talk to her, like you’re an old friend just wanting to chat. How could you forgive her so fast for what she did to us? Why are you so easy on her?”
Carl glared at Hicks and replied. “I’ll answer that when you can answer my question. Why were you so easy on Danielle, Cameron? She intentionally betrayed our entire team and potentially endangered all of our lives. All of our family’s lives. I understand Dr. Rosen forgiving her and trying to make a deal with the Feds on her behalf. He’s her father. Protecting children is what fathers do. We both know that. But how did you forgive Danielle for what she’s done?!”
Cameron sucked in a long breath, obviously trying not to lose his temper. “Because she was my girlfriend and I love her. Loved her”
Carl was barely able to resist telling Cameron that of course Hicks loved Danielle. She loved him, after all, and once Cameron had allowed Dr. Rosen’s daughter to touch him, her empathic touch ability had insured that Cameron would feel the same way about her. And even thought Carl knew Danielle hadn’t been able to help using her ability when she touched people, he still couldn’t comprehend how Cameron didn’t realize that he had allowed himself to be dominated in his relationship with Danielle much more often than he had in his short lived relationship with Nina, during which the mesmerizer had accidentally pushed Cameron only once. The sad, angry look In Cameron’s eyes stopped Carl, while simultaneously letting the tracker know he had gone too far with his words already.
Finally, after several seconds, Carl looked down at the ground and said. “Okay. I’m sorry. I crossed a line by asking that question and I…I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead like that. I’ve just been really on edge lately and…I’m just really sorry.”
Cameron shook his head. “We’ve all been on edge, Carl. And you shouldn’t have said that, but because you are my teammate, I’m willing to forget you did. Once. You understand?”
Carl nodded before Hicks continued speaking. “So, your turn. Why are you so easy on Nina?”
Carl sighed while rubbing his right temple. “Well, for one thing, she never pushed me, so I guess I never felt as violated by Nina as most of you have but…there’s more to it than that. It’s like Dr. Rosen told me the day he introduced me to the team, Nina’s ability is also her addiction, like your…difficulties with alcohol. It’s extremely difficult for her not to use her pushing ability. That’s why I forgive her when she messes up and misuses it occasionally.”
Cameron shook his head. “Occasionally? That’s a laugh! She used to misuse her ability all of the time. And you know, I’m not sure I buy what you are saying. I’m not sure you can compare Nina’s ability to alcoholism…”
Carl raised an eyebrow. “You’re right of course. Because you weren’t born with a bottomless beer in your hand that you can never let go of. Nor were you ever told that you could sip from it…but only when your handler said that you could. That’s the kind of situation that Nina is in most days because of her ability and her place on this team which requires her to use that ability on some occasions, but not others. If that isn’t tough, I don’t know what is.”
Cameron scratched the side of his face and looked down. “Oh. I…I guess I never thought of it like that. That makes sense…”
Carl nodded. “Right. And recently, when this team disintegrated for a while when Dr. Rosen…left, and then Rachel moved out of Nina’s apartment. And you ended your relationship with her…” The tracker held up his hand to stop the objection that was already on Cameron’s lips. “And I know you had your reasons for doing that. I’m not judging. But when those things happened, Nina’s entire support system fell away. And we…this team, still hasn’t recovered from the fallout of Dr. Rosen’s stunt. I should know. My wife and I have had to homeschool Charles since Dr. Rosen outed the existence of Alphas to the world, after one of his classmates pegged him as an alpha and began ostracizing him for being different. The point is, Nina’s support system was unstable when she went on a binder with her abilities recently. And it is even more so now that most people on this team don’t even want to talk to her most of the time. But Dr. Rosen still insists on making Nina use her gift in his crusade against Stanton Parish. And I know that both you and Dr. Rosen have cause to hate that Alpha, probably more than I can imagine, but…using Nina like this?”
Carl shook his head and tried to ignore the guilty voice in his head telling he had just tried to use Nina the exact same way as he continued speaking. “I don’t think it’s going to end well for her…especially if she doesn’t have any friends to lean on for support. But that’s just my opinion.”
Hicks had a thoughtful expression on his face as Carl, only now remembering they were still off, put his contacts back on….Only to find two words now swimming right at the bottom of his field of vision in red. Two words, blinking over and over, which Carl knew couldn’t have been there half an hour ago: HELP. US.
Cameron looked at Carl and sighed while Carl was still taking in the implication of this message, and Hicks started to speak. “Look, I’m sorry for giving you a hard time for spending time with Nina…”
But Carl quickly interrupted the other Alpha. “Hicks, you’re a good man, and a fine soldier, but I need you to shut up right now.”
Before Hicks could reply to those words, Carl had already run over to Dr. Rosen’s office and opened the door, before the tracker Alpha shouted. “Skylar and Zoe are in trouble! I know you’ve been looking for them, and I know where they are, but we all need to go get them right now!”
…..Sometime later….
Carl fidgeted with his two hands while he waited in the van, alongside Nina, Rachel and Gary, outside the building were Skylar was being held captive by a group of Alphas that Carl could only presume were Stanton Parish’s men. The group in the van was just waiting for Bill, Cameron and Kat to give the all clear signal indicating they had dealt with all of the hostiles and that it was okay for them to go to see Skylar and Zoe. Noticing that the altercation was taking longer than he hoped, and that no one inside the building was dying yet, Carl decided to break the tense silence by turning to Nina and saying. “I’m sorry, for what I said earlier. You’re a good friend, Nina. I’ve just been really on edge ever since Dr. Rosen took me aside six months ago and told me that I could never leave this team, even if I wanted to, If I didn’t want the NSA to come for me and take me and Charles to Binghamton. But I shouldn’t have taken that out on you. I’m sorry.”
Nina sighed. “It’s okay, Carl. I understand how hard it is to not feel in control of your own life. Given my abilities, I guess that’s ironic, but, whatever. It’s okay. You and everyone else on this team has every right to hate me for some of the things I’ve done recently, anyway. And you’re the only one that doesn’t hate me. Thank you.”
Carl just nodded at that, but Gary actually stopped moving his hand in the air and looking at electrical signals for several seconds to look at Nina with a frown on his face. “I don’t hate you, Nina. It was bad that you did some of the things you did, and I’m still mad because you hurt our friends. And my mom says friends shouldn’t hurt friends, but…I don’t hate you.”
Gary then went back to waving his hand in the air and tracing invisible signals only he could see, but Nina and Gary’s words stirred something inside Rachel, who spoke to Nina next with just enough moisture in her eyes to make them misty. “I…I don’t hate you either, Nina. What you did to me in that club…that was a huge betrayal of our friendship and my trust that hurt me both physically and emotionally. But….you have been there for me so many times over the years, helping me manage my parents, even to the point of encouraging me to speak up to my dad to save his life when I sensed he had cancer, letting me live with you for a while…For the longest time, you were like the cool, sometimes reckless, big sister that I wished I had along with my perfect biological one. And even though you hurt me…I still care about you and…I hope we can be friends again soon. I think I just need some time”
Nina smiled, even as several tears came out of her eyes. “I understand. Thank you, both of you, for telling me that. I would hug both of you, but…I know neither one of you would appreciate it. So I won’t”
Gary nodded as he continued chasing signals with his hands. “Good. Only my mom is allowed to hug me. I let Anna hug me a couple times but she’s dead now…”
There was a troubled look on Gary’s face for several seconds, but it quickly vanished after the transducer said. “So now, only my mom can hug me.”
Everyone else in the vans smiled then, despite Gary’s dark words, and the mood in the vehicle was just a little bit lighter by the time Bill radioed Nina to let her know that the coast was clear for everyone to come inside to get Skylar Adams. Everyone in the vehicle immediately got out and raced into the building. As expected, Carl was able to reach the room where Skylar and Zoe where being held before anybody else on the team, even Harken, Hicks, and Cat, were able to, since Carl’s Alpha ability allowed him to find the location of the two female Alpha’s faster than anyone else.
The sight that greeted Carl when he reached the room nearly made his heart break. Both Skylar and Zoe were asleep and hooked up to some medical equipment that Carl didn’t really know the purpose of. However, both Adams’ girls had grimaces on their faces that indicated they were not sleeping peacefully, making the tracker Alpha want to immediately wake the mother and daughter up. But he waited for the other members of Rosen’s team to enter the room and consulted with Rachel to make sure that course of action would be safe for the mother and daughter first.
After Rachel said it was okay, Carl’s first instinct was to run straight towards Skylar to wake her up, but the tracker Alpha resisted that impulse in favor of walking calmly towards Zoe and waking the technopath’s daughter up by repeatedly tapping on her small shoulder instead, while Nina woke Skylar herself, for two reasons. One, he still felt guilty about not looking for Skylar one with his ability in the last six months, and he didn’t want to look Skylar in the eyes just yet. Two, Carl knew that if his and Skylar’s positions were reversed, he would want the technopath to make sure Charles was okay before checking on him.
Zoe responded to Carl waking up by crying out in fear at first, but after Carl lowered his voice and informed her that. “It’s going to be, okay. You and your mommy were just having a bad dream”, and pointing towards an already fully awake Skylar to emphasize his point, Zoe noticeably calmed down and smiled before catching Carl off guard with a hug. “I remember you! You’re mommy’s friend, Carl! Thank you for saving us from the nightmare and the bad man!”
Carl blushed while awkwardly returning the little girl’s hug as he began to explain. “Actually, it was Kat, Mr. Harken, and Mr. Hicks that did most of the….”
But Skylar interrupted Carl’s words, and the tracker Alpha noted that the technopath had stopped talking to a concerned Nina and was now sending a grateful look in his direction as she said. “Yes, thank you, Carl, for getting help here so quickly.” Skylar smiled nervously before looking at the other members of Rosen’s crew before she added. “Thank all of you. And Gary, thanking you sending me that ping through my drones and helping me to realize that I was being kept in an artificial dream state, so that I could ask Carl for help. I really don’t like owing people, but I guess I do owe all of you one…”
…..Back in the Big Apple…
Sometime later, after Rosen’s team, plus Skylar, dropped Zoe off at a distant relative’s house, then drove to the DCIS office in New York, the technopath quickly told Dr. Rosen and his team about what had happened to her and Zoe over the last six months. About how the two of them had been abducted by Stanton Parish the day after Alphaville fell, then had his underlings trap them in a constant dream state while forcing Skylar to do…something that Skylar couldn’t quite remember in order to improve a large number of photic stimulator’s somehow. Then, after having a quick discussion with Dr. Rosen, in which the technopath agreed to help analyze the shipment of mechanical parts Lee’s team had intercepted from Red Flag, as well as help try to figure out what Rosen was doing with the photic stimulator’s she had been forced to enhance for him, on the condition that Dr. Rosen would guarantee Zoe’s safety.
As Skylar began to analyze the tech components at the workbench Dr. Rosen had set up for her, Nina opted to stay with her friend “for moral support” as the rest of team began to leave the room. Before Carl, who was the last one to try to leave the room, and who had looked guilty for some reason almost the entire time since Rosen’s team had rescued Skylar, the technopath spoke to the tracker Alpha and the mesmerizer. “Hey Nina, could you give Carl and I a minute?”
Nina smirked, looked between Carl and Skylar in a suggestive fashion that made both parties uncomfortable, then said. “Okay, then. I’ll just leave you two….alone. In this room…all by yourselves…”while the mesmerizer did exactly that.
Skylar sighed and looked at Carl, who was now staring at the ground, and said. “You know, Nina’s fun in small doses, but how you and the rest of your team put up with her five days a week is beyond me.”
Carl actually smiled at those words and looked up at Skylar to reply. “As you well know, Nina is an acquired taste. Also, since the hunt for Stanton Parish went into overdrive, it has been closer to seven days a week. What did you want to talk about, Skylar?”
“Straight to the point. I like that. I just wanted to thank you again for hurrying to save me and Zoe so quickly after I sent you my distress signal…”
The tracker Alpha shook his head. “You don’t need to thank me for responding to a friend in crisis quickly. That’s what any decent friend would do. Besides, this whole situation, you and Zoe being captured for so long, Parish having so many enhanced photic stimulators…all of it is my fault. If I had just checked up on you every now and again with my ability, made sure you were alright after everything that happened in Alphaville…None of this would have happened.”
Skylar frowned and put down her tools for a second to look Carl in the eyes, which made Carl nervous, but he was able to hold the technopath’s gaze this time without having any embarrassing reactions, Alpha ability related or otherwise, while she spoke. “This situation isn’t your fault Carl. One, you need to stop blaming yourself for everything, like you did about killing Scipio, which was unfortunate, but necessary. Two, you had promised me that you wouldn’t check on my location unless there was an emergency of some kind, and you kept both parts of that promise. And three…”
Skylar sighed and looked down. “If anyone is to blame for me and Zoe getting kidnapped and Stanton Parish getting me to enhance some of his tech, it’s me. I should have taken you and Nina up on your offer to come here, to New York City, and join the team. Zoe and I would have been safer here…”
Carl shook his head. “Not necessarily. There was…a traitor to our organization up until fairly recently. She’s…gone now. But she might have told Parish where you were if you had come here, and then you two could have gotten kidnapped anyway and we would all be in the same boat we are in right now. It’s kind of like…I tried to leave DCIS after you gave me that device for Carl, but Dr. Rosen said if I did leave, the NSA would just hunt me down and bring me to Binghamton. And since I don’t know how to just drop off the grid like you can by myself, much less with my wife and child…”
Carl shrugged. “Maybe all of this, everything that is happening right now, was inevitable. I guess we’ll never know.”
Skylar frowned. “I guess not. I have a good idea. Let’s just blame Stanton Parish for all the bad stuff that is happening right now and leave it at that.”
Carl smiled. “Sounds good to me. I…I guess I’d better leave now and keep trying to find Parish. That bastard is a needle in a haystack though. I’ve never met the man before and there are way too many Alphas with healing abilities for me to just pluck his location out of…”
The tracker Alpha laughed after he realized he was rambling, earning a smirk from Skylar before he said. “I’m just going to find Nina and tell her to come back here with you now…”
Skylar shook her head and spoke, even as she started working with her tools again, before Carl could walk out the door. “Please don’t. I prefer to work alone. Keep as much noise out of my head as possible. Oh, and just so you know…From a strictly objective point of view, you have nice eyes, and you look better with my contacts on you than you did with your old shades.”
Carl turned away from Skylar, hiding his blushing face from the technopath as he replied while walking out of the room. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. And…strictly from an objective stand-point, your eyes aren’t half bad either.”
With Skylar’s eyes on the electrical components in front of her, and Carl’s eyes facing straight ahead, neither the tracker, nor the technopath could see the smile on the other’s face
…
….hours later…
After the accidental death of an electrical technician trying to mess with equipment beyond his pay grade (an act, everyone agreed with Skylar, was stupid, although Carl pointed out that man’s death could lead to many more lives being saved) Rosen’s team was able to puzzle out that Parish was going to kill millions of neurotypical humans while upgrading the abilities of hundreds of Alphas, all with photic stimulators placed in power grids worldwide in major cities around the planet. Rosen’s team and many other national and international agencies quickly went into damage control mode by turning off the power to every major city that Stanton Parish’s recovered notes indicated he had sent Red Flag agents to. With one exception.
It turned out that post-9/11 New York City had been switched to a power distribution network that could not be shut down remotely. Which was why Skylar and several other tech experts were now trying to find a way to manually shut of all the power in New York City so that Stanton couldn’t kill over a million people, while all of the other people in the DCIS building without high levels of tech knowledge were relegated to doing nothing but sending their families out of town while talking amongst themselves (or in Nina’s case, with Skylar) until someone could figure out a way for them to do something useful.
This was the situation that the group was in when Cameron Hicks finally announced to the team that he was leaving to go look for Dr. Rosen, who had gone missing hours ago looking for Stanton Parish, as well as Parish himself. Everyone in the group, save Skylar, who was so focused on her work that she barely noticed Cameron leave, wished Mr. Hicks good luck as he left…including Nina, who looked at her ex with a worried expression and begged him to be careful and not to do anything rash. Cameron’s only reply to his ex as he walked towards the elevator was a nod.
With a sigh, Nina returned to her seat next to Skylar, who paid just enough attention to see Cameron leave, but not enough to see the distressed look on Nina’s face, which spoke of a combination of concern and longing, as she watched the muscular Alpha get into the elevator. Therefore, Skylar’s tone was quite cynical when she looked at Nina and said. “It’s a shame, really. That man is so pretty, but so useless.”
Nina’s tone of voice when she responded was quiet, but firm, letting Skylar know her friend was being defensive when the mesmerizer spoke. “He’s smarter then he looks.”
The frown of concentration on Skylar’s face softened, and she was about to open her mouth to apologize for her careless comment about Hicks, when Nina added in a catty tone. “And at least the man I’m in love with isn’t a married man who tried to pass me off to Gary, of all people.”
Skylar looked down and her eyes became misty, a reaction which caused her to question if she really was in love with Carl Webb. Finally, after several seconds, the technopath was able form a reply on her lips. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult the man you loved. Now can you please go away so I can focus on my work?”
Seeing that her usually thick-skinned friend evidently had even deeper feelings for Carl than Nina thought, as evidenced by the fact that Skylar seemed to be just short of bursting into tears, the mesmerizer hung her head and said. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have gone th…”
Skylar turned back to her model of the New York City power grid and resumed manipulating the model with her hands as she interrupted her friend with unshed tears still in her eyed. “Please go.”
Nina sighed as she got up from her chair and went to go talk to some of her friends in DCIS. “Okay. But I really am sorry.”
Skylar just nodded at Nina’s words. She knew she would forgive her friend for her careless words eventually, but right now she knew she needed to get thoughts of Carl out of her head in order to focus on the task at hand. After several minutes of Nina’s words running through Skylar’s head however, Skylar couldn’t help herself, and she gave into her curiosity as she got up to see what Carl was up to. As she passed the tracker Alpha’s office, she caught the tail end of a conversation he was having with his wife via his cell phone. Skylar’s heart seemed to catch in her throat when Carl, who didn’t even seem to notice Skylar standing right outside his office, spoke into his phone while smiling. “I have to go now, Charlotte. I love you too. Hug Charles goodnight for me, alright?”
Not needing to hear any more evidence of how blissfully happy the man she now realized she was in love with was with his wife and family, Skylar soon found herself running to the women’s restroom and finding a vacant stall, which she was just able to close before she started crying. Skylar knew there was important work to be done tonight. Work that only she could do. Work that could save over a million people. But for a minute, just for a minute. Skylar let her sadness, loneliness, and self-pity take ahold of her as she cried her eyes out and thought of the difference between her and Nina’s situations and idly wondered: which was worse? To be in love with someone that no longer loved you, or to be in love with someone that definitely cared about you, maybe even loved you, but that could never be with you because they had already fallen in love with and married someone else, and had a child with that other person to boot? Skylar didn’t know the answer to that question. All she knew from personal experience was that the second scenario hurt like hell.
…Several hours later…
Eventually, Skylar had figured out that she could manually turn off New York City’s power from a control panel in Grand Central Station. However, Bill suspected that Parish may have anticipated that someone may try to turn the power off there and left Alpha soldiers there to prevent this from happening. Carl confirmed this fear, and added that, among the man Alpha’s that were posted in and around Grand Central station, there was an Alpha with a powerful healing factor, which everyone guessed was probably Stanton Parish himself
Knowing that the stakes couldn’t be higher, DCIS worked tirelessly to stop a catastrophe many times worse than 9/11 from occurring in the Big Apple, while trying to recapture the head of Red Flag, who had escaped government confinement before, even as Cameron and Dr. Lee Rosen secretly plotted to avenge Danielle by killing Stanton Parish. In the end, the night did not go as anyone planned it to.
While the DCIS team ran interference against Red Flag, Skylar had been able to shut off the power to the rest of the city from the terminal in Grand Central Station, but she had been horrified to discover that she did not have enough time to undo all of the work that Stanton Parish’s tech expert had done…so she wouldn’t be able to shut off the power to Grand Central Station itself in time. However, determined to save as many lives as possible, Skylar still turned on a fire alarm in hopes that some people would escape the train station, while trying futilely to dismantle the mechanisms which would keep her from shutting off the power to Grand Central station. Unfortunately, as she had predicted, Skylar did not have time to do this, and all of the photic stimulators in the train station went off before every neurotypical human there could escape being killed by the devices…or before every Alpha in the station, including Skylar herself, was rendered unconscious by the artificial lights the devices created.
Before this horrific event occurred however, Cameron and Lee had been able to find Stanton Parish and incapacitate him with a cocktail of blood coagulants that rendered the “immortal” Alpha unconscious and temporarily suspended his healing ability. Carl, who had used his Alpha ability and the process of elimination (as there were no other Alphas with healing abilities in the station) to track Parish down, was also present at this moment, and he watched Hicks urge Dr. Rosen to kill Stanton, for various reasons. But in the end, the doctor’s conscience wouldn’t allow him to do such a thing, and he urged Hicks to spare Parish’s life as well. The three conscious men were still arguing about what to do, even as their team was trying to prevent catastrophe while fighting Red Flag’s Alphas, when the photic stimulators activated themselves.
By the time all of the Alphas still in Grand Central Station (including, surprisingly, Dr. Rosen himself) woke up, they discovered two important things. One, every “normal” human that had still been in the train Station when the photic stimulators went off was now dead. And two, Stanton Parish was missing.
And so was Carl Webb.