FUTURITY

ANO (Pt 1)

"Jason, please wake up." A slender hand shook him. "Jason!" someone shouted. He moaned and opened his eyes. Rachel's face hung over his, her eyes wide with worry.

Jason's mouth felt dry. "What—?" He remembered everything now. ANO had captured them all. "How did they find us?" he asked, his voice cracking.

Rachel sighed and sat back as if relieved. "I don't know. I wasn't even sure if you'd wake up." Jason grunted and slowly sat up, his head swimming.

"Where are the others?"

"I don't know that either," Rachel said. She shook her head. "I was tranquilized at the house, and then I vaguely remember a man injecting my arm with some liquid. But when I fully woke up, all

I saw it  was you."

Jason got into a sitting position and rubbed his temples. They sat in a small concrete room with only one steel door. Rachel stood and began to pace. With another groan, Jason put his feet under him and walked to the door. He touched its cold metal surface.

"I just don't understand it," he said. "How could ANO have found us? It's impossible to track Jude when he teleports."

"Well, they did somehow. And now we're stuck."

"No, we're not," Jason said. He raised his hand toward the door, then touched the door's surface with his mind and pulled. Jason's head exploded with fatigue, and he swayed, suddenly dizzy.

"Whatever they drugged us with, works," Rachel said, shaking her head. "I tried to make a fireball, and all I got was this." She raised her hand, and on her palm, a tiny flame leaped to life. Her body shook, and the flame sputtered out. "It's tiring. And there is nothing in this room to burn."

Jason glanced around and spotted a tiny piece of paper lying on the floor. Raising his hand, he willed it to move. It immediately rose into the air, and the fatigue Jason had felt when he'd tried to move the door didn't come back.

"The drug must only minimize our powers. It doesn't get rid of them," Jason said, relieved.

Rachel nodded and slumped back onto the floor. "Yeah, well, making candlelight and moving pieces of paper with our minds will get us nowhere."

Jason chuckled. "Nope," he said. "It won't." He sat down beside

Rachel and stared at the ceiling. "You know, after finally figuring out how to use my power, I'm pretty useless."

Rachel laughed and put a warm hand on his arm. "Jason, your abilities are only as strong as your character will allow. We'll find a way out." She took a shaky breath. "Somehow."

The metal door opened. Jason scrambled to his feet and stepped forward, putting himself between Rachel and the newcomer. His breath caught as Ian Isaacs walked in. A man around Leon's size in height and muscle followed him.

Ian smiled. "I'm glad to see that you both are doing well. I was told to take you in for some testing." Ian turned and shouted back through the door. "Handcuff the prisoners."

Jason stiffened, as two crooked figures moved lithely into the room. Their blue mechanical eyes scanned both Jason and Rachel's faces before they stepped forward and placed cuffs on both their wrists.

Jason found that the mechanical men—or whatever they were— didn't even reach his hip in height, but their humming metal limbs portrayed precision and strength. "That's better," Ian said, then gestured toward the door. "Come."

"Follow him, prisoners," a raspy voice said behind him. Jason and Rachel both obeyed.

Ian led the way into a long gray hallway and motioned toward the humanoid machines. "Wonderful, aren't they? They are called automatons. I prefer the term 'robot,' but I'm not an intellectual like my superiors. These automatons can lift a car without much trouble, so I wouldn't run if I were you."

Ian paused for a moment. "Oh, this is Force, my wingman," he said, gesturing toward the other man, who'd stayed silent. When they reached the end of the hall, Ian turned, opened a set of double doors, and walked through. Jason and Rachel hurried after him with the automatons right behind.

Jason caught Force glancing back at him with green eyes. Their eyes met. Force's rugged face twitched, and he looked away as Ian led them into a more expansive hallway. The first thing Jason noticed was the light. One entire wall and half of the ceiling were glass, and through that, he saw movement. Ian didn't slow his stride and kept his face forward.

"This is where we manufacture our automatons, weapons, and explosives," Ian said. He gestured again, this time through the glass at rows and rows of thousands of automatons. "The Western world will pay for the corruption it has been harboring for so many years,"

Ian said, his voice hard. "And the innocents they have killed."

Jason stole a look at Rachel, who glanced back with wide eyes. He smiled nervously, doing his best to encourage her. It didn't seem to work.

Jason looked through the glass again and thought he caught a glimpse of robotic figures much taller than the automatons. They looked like they were at least thirty feet tall. Jason swallowed.

"Where are we?" he asked.

Force stole another glance back at Jason.

"I'm not authorized to tell you," Ian said before stopping at the end of the hall. He slid a card in a reader, and a door opened. They walked through. Scientists in white clothes scurried around the room, using machines and filling vials with colored liquids.

"Here they are, Daniels," Ian said.

A short man with dark skin stepped forward. "Ah, there they are. Thank you for bringing them, Psycher. And Force." He smiled and then turned away. "Come with me, you two."

"Where are we going?" Rachel said. Jason felt surprised that her voice sounded calm and level.

"We are testing to see what kind of abilities you have," the short man replied. He led them through rows of counters and machines. Jason glanced back at Ian and Force, who waited where they'd left them. Why do they do this?

Rachel gasped, making Jason turn. Samuel, Jude, and Leon sat in chairs, bruised and bloody. Samuel and Jude sat with only handcuffs as restraints, but Leon was doing his best to shout through a muzzle strapped to his face and he strained against the handcuffs that held his hands behind his back. His bare torso bulged and flexed with each attempt. When he saw Jason, he went limp, breathing heavily through his nose.

"Leon!" Jason said. He stepped forward, but a metal hand pulled him back.