Repair crews all the way from DC were almost finished erasing the damage she and Peter had caused. The Special Holding Unit had been built with modular construction so it was relatively easy to fix, or so she'd been told. Alex grinned a little when she passed by the wall she'd destroyed and saw two guys hard at work fitting another door. They gave her tight smiles and head nods as she headed to the elevator. Every officer she came near greeted her warmly, taking time to stop and say hello, when they'd never done that before. By the time she reached the bottom floor it finally dawned on her why. She'd moved herself to the top of the heap.

Everybody had heard of how Alex had single handedly defeated a very strong prisoner breaking his super hard bones and tearing ligaments in clear retribution for the injuries he caused her fellow officers. People also knew about how she'd freed herself from the robot restraints using just the power in her normally very slim looking arms. They'd already known that she was Level 3 enhanced, but knowing something and witnessing it are often different things. Whether they realized it or not, gifted people always tended to gravitate to and fall in line behind the most powerful among them, and Alex had shown herself to be that. She'd been through this before, but back in those days Alex's respect had been tinged with fear. Those people had been very careful avoid Alex's ire, but the officers down here in the Bunker trusted her. They believed that if anything happened that they couldn't handle that Alex would have their back, and she would. She'd never thought of herself as a team player type, but hearing the screams of her fellow officers had made something snap inside of her. If she hadn't held herself back she would have ripped Peter apart limb from burly limb. It wouldn't have been the first time she'd had to prove herself to someone who thought they could defeat her and take her crown. Peter Cooper had no idea who Alex was or what she was capable of, but she wouldn't allow herself to dwell on the past too much. Pride came along with those memories and Alex had few things to be proud of from that part of her life.

Alex stopped at the equipment desk like she did every morning and the guy behind the armored window was actually being nice for a change. He wasn't staring at her chest to see if she'd missed a button on her uniform top. Instead she kept his eyes locked on Alex's pretty face instead. He smiled after handing over her special baton and robot restraints then said, "Have a nice shift Officer Young." Alex was almost stunned into stuttering, but she turned back with a smile of her own and told him that she'd settle for an uneventful one. More officers came from other floors to say hello or to have short conversations with Alex, but she was determined to prevent any of this from going to her head. Max told her that she had to start at the bottom to build this new life, and while she often pretended to, she never actually refused his advice. She wasn't going to start now.

Cassidy Redwine walked towards campus with a brightly colored scarf trailing behind her, floating in the breeze, a few locks of hair blowing along with it. Her expression was somewhat serious, but she hadn't felt so good in weeks. Despite still dealing with so much heavy stuff, Cassidy felt like herself, almost carefree and almost ready to enjoy the all the wonders of life again. Her expression lightened and a smile turned up the corners of her lips when she thought about Jan and about her family. Jan friended hard and didn't know any other way to be. Taylor and Heather seemed to be similar in their own ways. She'd heard about her for a long time, but Cassie would never forget actually meeting Taylor and being deconstructed by her wit. Taylor hadn't liked to do it and it had been for Cassie's own benefit, but for Taylor to be that beautiful and that smart wasn't fair.

As Cassie came to a corner, she looked down the block at a gathering in front of a recently constructed building and groaned. The new Islamic Center was opening just off campus and people were protesting. The local news had interviewed a guy who had gone on and on about how it was disrespectful for this place to be opening its doors so soon after the terrorist attack. Cassie saw him there holding up a sign. There weren't many students there, but Cassie saw a few, some she barely recognized and others she knew well. Her first thought was to shake her head and keep going, instead she headed towards the uproar, hoping to convince some of the more reasonable people to leave the gathering. She didn't see a group of female Muslim students trying to get into the center but the protesters were blocking their path. Some tried to find ways around while others stood on the sidewalk confused and stunned.

"Oh hey Cassie", Todd, a guy from one of her classes called out. "You want a sign? We've got extras!"

"No. Come on people make some room. You can't just block the door", Cassie spoke up.

The students in the colorful hijabs all turned to look as one of their fellow students spoke up on their behalf. A couple of girls had seen Cassie around campus while to the others she was just a student with the courage to stand up to these protesters. The girls gathered as Cassie spoke and a couple of them suggested that they leave before the crowd turned on her too.

"What are you doing Cassie?", Todd demanded.

She threw up her hands. "No Todd, what are you doing? We've seen this center under construction for months. Its opening and the attack a while back have nothing to do with each other."

"That doesn't matter Cassie. You know what they did here in OUR hometown. There needs to be some dialogue. It can't just be business as usual after something like that."

"It's not business as usual", an exasperated Cassie exclaimed. "You know Fariha. She's from that little town near the Nile that you said you wanted to visit. She had nothing to do with the attack! Nothing at all, but look at how scared she is, at how scared they all are. You think that's normal?"

Todd's face turned a little red. "I can't believe this Cassie! You're just taking up for the fucking Arabs!"

"I am a fucking Arab!", Cassie shouted then turned to the group of girls standing in the middle of the sidewalk. "Come on", she told them in Arabic and reached out her hand. "These people are doing lots of shouting but aren't going to stop us from going inside", she assured them after using her power to take the measure of every person around them. This development was as shocking to Fariha who knew Cassie a little as it was to everybody else, but she took the offered hand and motioned for the others to come along too. Cassie didn't even look at the faces around her as she walked up the steps and through the door. Smiles broke out when the doors closed behind them.

"I never knew that you were Arab", Fariha said in her native language although she spoke English quite well.

Cassie shrugged as she pulled the pashmina scarf from around her neck. "It never came up. It's not like I try to cover up that my Mom's side of the family is Tunisian, but I don't walk around with a sign around my neck either", she said and tied a hijab in the traditional North African way.

"Hiding in plain sight", Fariha remarked after studying Cassie's face and noticing the Maghreb there for the first time.

"Best place to hide", Cassie whispered then giggled. "Except… I'm not hiding… really, I'm not."

Jan pounded her fists against the canvas before jumping to her feet. LaShaunta bounced from side to side in a corner of the ring twisting her hips from side to side, making her abs tense and sharpen with each motion. Her hands were up and ready, her eyes focused, but at least she wasn't wearing a smile like the last time. They'd been going at it pretty hard and fairly seriously for the last ten minutes, and at first they'd traded the upper hand, but for the last three and a half minutes LaShaunta had gotten the better of Jan. It was getting pretty old, but Jan knew this was how things went. It was also how she got better. Besides, the pendulum was bound to swing back her way. Jan's arms and shoulders flexed in momentary shredded perfection when she bashed her gloved fists together and started striding towards the center of the ring.

Jan circled to her left, towards LaShaunta's strong side, but then fired off a surprise straight right hand that caught LaShaunta in the center of her headgear, snapping her head back against her shoulders. Jan unleashed a kick to those iron hard abdominals. Jan's long strong legs generated so much force that not even LaShaunta's hard earned muscles could shrug off that blow. She bent from the impact, but tensed up and raised her arms to defend her head because she knew what was coming next. Jan was so damned quick that she almost instantly had her left foot back on the mat and her right shin was on the way to LaShaunta's head. The smack of Jan's leg hitting LaShaunta's arm echoed around the Title Fighting Club, but everyone was already paying at least some attention to this sparing match.

It was rare, but LaShaunta lost her balance and stumbled to her left while Jan pressed her advantage. Jan rushed towards a retreating LaShaunta only to catch a well place uppercut right under her chin that stopped Jan in her tracks. LaShaunta squared on Jan and sent a front kick right at Jan's middle, driving her heel into the pit of Jan's stomach. Her tall friend's abs were so hard that it felt like kicking skin covered wall of stone, but it had the desired effect. Jan didn't lose her balance, but leaned over just a tad. That was all it took. LaShaunta pressed forward and slammed a beautiful combination against Jan's face, making her back peddle, but she got too close. While absorbing a left hook, Jan reached out and grabbed LaShaunta by the band of her shorts and stepped into her. LaShaunta didn't have time to disengage, before Jan's biceps flexed and their balance shifted. In an instant LaShaunta found herself flying back first towards the mat, and all she could do was brace for the impact.

"Fall!", Russ called from just outside the ring and Jan rolled off of LaShaunta and bounded to her feet. "Shaunie, you're rushing and brawling… bad mix. Jan, you're thinking about the end result instead of the process." Both young ladies nodded and headed towards the center of the ring with their arms around each other's shoulders. "Next one's the last one", Russ announced after checking his watch.

Jan and LaShaunta groaned. Russ laughed. "I know you two could go all day long, but we're not going to." Jan and LaShaunta bounced a bit before attacking again. They cinched in the middle of the ring, Jan pressing forward using every inch of her height to gain an advantage, but LaShaunta held firm, pressing the balls of her feet into the canvas making her calves roll and flare. Her sleek muscular quads flexed with vascular thickness like Russ had never seen from her before. Just when Jan's bulging, shredded body seemed to gain an advantage, LaShaunta's body flexed to match it. Sweat rolled down Jan's neck, shoulders, and chest, making pulsing eight pack abdominals look like some river delta as she attempted to move LaShaunta against her will.

Normally Russ would have called for the two to separate, but he just couldn't make himself do it. Throughout all of their workouts and training sessions, he'd never seen either Jan or LaShaunta really flex. He got an eyeful now as they attempted to overpower each other. There was no skill involved in this, but he was so engrossed that he couldn't even blink his eyes.

"You seem like you're floating on a cloud today", Moshen Rabin remarked as he passed Avi's open office door.

The younger man looked up from the picture he was holding long enough to reply, "I had a very nice time in Atlanta."

Moshen grinned and stepped to the side of Avi's desk so he could see the photo and instantly started to frown. "That's the girlfriend you speak of all the time?!?"

Avi looked at the picture Jan had given him and smiled. "Her name is Janet, and she's as sweet as she is beautiful."

Moshen leaned in to make sure he was seeing her correctly, and that it wasn't just the angles paying tricks on his eyes. "If that was my girlfriend I'd say to hell with my job. I'd marry her now and do whatever she told me to do for the rest of my life and count myself fortunate!", Moshen exclaimed after studying the professionally taken photo.

Avi put the picture down and let out a long sigh. "We don't get to spend as much time together as we would like, but we make it work. Who knows, we might get married one day, but that's entirely up to her."

Moshen chuckled and stood in the doorway of Avi's office for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Your girlfriend made me forget the reason I came down in the first place."

Avi laughed. "She has that affect on people. What can I help you with?"

"Do you remember the Hamas courier that was caught with those South American bonds headed for Azerbaijan?"

Avi nodded. "I remember it not making any sense at the time", he replied.

"It still doesn't. But we've hit a dead end with all of the other intel he had on him, and your old friends at The Institute aren't interested in calling in any favors to track the intel further. So they have dumped it in our laps."

Avi thought for a moment before looking up with a smile. "Let the Americans have it. If the money tracks back to groups from our area we'll hear about and if it has nothing to do with our neighborhood then we won't and we won't have to worry."

Moshen rubbed his chin. "Very good suggestion."

"There's a NATO intelligence group operating out of a black site in Poland. We can plant it for them and make them think they found it", Avi said.

"That, my friend, is a plan", Moshen said went back to his office to start making preparations. Avi just leaned back in his seat and smiled broadly. It felt so good to be able to play spy again if just for a little while.

Alexandra Young's shift had been magically perfect. Nothing happened and she got to leave early. It was probably preferential treatment, but she didn't care. So long as her supervisors wanted to send it her way, she'd take it. Alex tried to keep herself from doing it, but she glanced over at their parking spaces to see which of her annoying neighbors might be home. The blue Hummer and the gleaming black Beamer said that only two of them were there.

It wasn't lost on Alex how obsessive she was being, but she just couldn't help it. She'd never been normal, so there was no need to start being normal now. Although she was pretty sure her neighbors didn't give her nearly as much thought as she gave them. Maybe she'd weigh on them and they'd want to fight. It would probably be the tall one who stepped out front and Alex would just love pounding her then pulling the Special Programs card and not getting arrested. The only bad thing about that would be having to punch like that girl's face was made out of wet papier-mâché.

Alex tossed her keys on the table next to the door and headed straight for the kitchen. She'd skipped lunch and the leftovers from the fancy restaurant Max had taken her to were calling her name. She wandered back to the window to look out at the parking lot while waiting for the microwave to ding, and saw a familiar person getting out of a government sedan. She frowned when he started going up the stairs to the wrong building. Alex was half a second from going to the door to call to Special Agent Wills to explain that he was knocking on the wrong door, when the busty neighbor opened the door and instantly got a big smile on her face. She put an arm around him and they hugged. He'd take half a step to enter the apartment when the blonde one came up and hugged Wills too. Alexandra scoffed as her meal finished heating up. "Hmm", she began and headed towards the kitchen. "And I was just starting to like him."

"So you do know where we live", Alisha joked after opening the door for Agent Wills.

"Been giving y'all some space", he replied with a grin.

"How's this for space?", Sara asked and gave Agent Wills a big hug. "Come on in", she urged.

Agent Wills walked in and looked around at the nicely furnished luxury apartment and smiled thinking back to his first apartment when he was in college. "Nice place", he remarked.

"Thank you", Sara exclaimed in her genteel Mississippi drawl. "We just got that living room set this month. The old one was getting worn out."

"So says the woman who has the carpet in her bedroom changed every six months", Alisha said and Agent Wills laughed.

Sara blushed. "I like soft stuff under my toes", she explained.

"I have to admit though, your place is girlier than I might have expected for three tough as nails secret operatives."

Sara laughed. "I'm not sure if you've noticed Agent Wills, but umm we're girls."

"Anyway, it's good to see you", Alisha began. "It's been too long since we've seen you… way too long for me and Sara, but you see Jan all the time. You've got to get her out of one mess or another pretty often."

Agent Wills had his best laugh of the day as he sat down on the recliner. "Y'all know Jan means well." Alisha and Sara shared a laugh. "So where is Miss Caufield?"

"Training at the fight gym that she and our new roommate are members of. Oh, you haven't met LaShaunta have you?"

"Nope", Wills replied and shook his head. "But I'm sure she's lovely. So you guys aren't members of this gym?"

This time it was Alisha who shook her head. "You guys trained us well at hand to hand, but we're not that leet."

"Practice, practice, practice", Wills told them.

"If you say so", Sara said from the kitchen.

"Would you stay for dinner?", Alisha asked suddenly. "It'll be our treat."

"I'm still on the clock believe it or not. I could have called you guys, but I wanted to stop by in person to report that you don't have to worry about getting yanked back into SP any time soon. We're trying our best to fill the hole your team's departure left. And Nick reminded the people in Washington, it's not good business to have employees who don't want to be employees, especially in this case."

"It's not that we don't want to be a part of SP", Sara began but cut herself off.

"I think we may have jumped in too deep, way too fast", Alisha put to words what Sara'd been trying to say.

"I understand. Trust me I do", Agent Wills said and stood up. "But next time, if you guys decide to take down a drug operation that's been the subject of a two year DEA investigation, give me a heads up first, please."

Sara and Alisha both looked shocked. "You know about that?!?"

"Come on! Give an old man some credit. Of course I know about that, just like I know about Jan playing chicken with a Mercedes the other day, and about y'all saving a robbery victim's life."

"You know about that stuff too!", they asked.

"You girls have kind hearts, which is a good thing. If you didn't there's no telling how much hell you could raise. But be that as it may", Agent Wills said, "I have to keep an eye on you three at all times. It's probably half of what I get paid for these days."

Alisha grinned slyly. "Well me and Sara only raise hell on purpose."

"Usually on purpose", Sara corrected. "You know… stuff just happens sometimes."

Wills grimaced and shook his head slowly. "Coming from you Sara, that really makes me nervous."

"Wow, you're too good to be true", Dr. Dan Horowitz said and Cassidy made a show of pinching herself on the arm.

"Well sir, at least one of us isn't dreaming", she deadpanned and Dan laughed.

He scanned down her application and resume again before looking up. "What in the world makes a pretty young woman like you want to turn yourself into a hunchbacked hermit studying advanced cellular neurology?"

"Groups of people have tendencies, but each person is unique and quirky. I've always been interested in studying the stuff that makes us... us. What makes us tick and why do individuals do the things they do? It was either this or psychiatry."

Dan smiled. "Psychiatry pays better."

"Yeah, well I can do this job and still respect myself in the morning."

Dan's smile broadened and he stood up from his chair. "Miss Redwine, you are my first intern in a decade. Congratulations."

"Really!", Cassie exclaimed and shot up from the chair before shaking Dan's hand.

"Oh ouu!", he exclaimed and looked down as the corded muscles and tendons standing out on Cassie's forearm. "Nice grip", he told her before pulling his hand back and shaking it.

"Dr. Horowitz, I'm so sorry", a suddenly blushing Cassie apologized.

"Don't worry about it. You know, my colleague downstairs studies musculature. You certainly seem strong enough to fit his bill."

Cassie grinned sheepishly and curled her wrist to make her forearm really bulge. "Working out helps keep me sane."

"Then you'll want to add a weight or two", Dan told Cassie. "Being an intern for me isn't going to be a walk in the park."

"I wouldn't expect it to be. I've got so much to learn."

Dan looked over Cassie's head at the clock on the wall without even realizing it and came around his desk. "The position starts in three weeks and by then I'll need you to have read and made notes on every book and article on the reading list I gave you."

"Yes sir, of course. I'm halfway through it already. I really hoped I'd get this internship."

Dan looked at Cassie and saw past her good looks and even past her bubbly infectious personality to the driven, hard working person beneath all of that. She reminded him a lot of himself in some ways, especially back when he'd been an eager undergrad at U of C. Dan and Cassie spoke for a few more minutes before Dan walked her to the elevator. Cassie was so excited that she immediately pulled out her phone to call her mother, while the power of the bianzhong quickly took over Dan's brilliant mind. He closed and locked the door to his suite and picked up where he'd left off on figuring out how a man had taken control of Benny's Femmes back in December.

"So were you taking it easy on me this time?", LaShaunta asked Jan over the sound of the shower.

"Maybe", Jan yelled back while letting the steaming hot water run over the back of her head.

LaShaunta laughed. "I thought you were gonna come unglued that last time I dumped you. I was like… I've finally done it. I've pushed Jan too far. She's gonna literally break me in half!"

"Oh I was pissed", Jan admitted then chuckled. "I hate losing, but you know what… if I spar with people I can beat all time, I don't get better. Besides, seeing you get up off the mat after I've dumped you almost cancels out my disappointment."

LaShaunta wrapped a towel around her body and headed towards her locker just as Jan came out of the showers wiping her hair and covering nothing else. All six feet and one inch of Jan was on display as a few more drops of water ran down her still pumped body. There were plenty of hot women who looked better with clothes on than they did nude. Jan wasn't one of them.  Her body enhanced her beauty. Every part of her body flowed seamlessly together and her movements were graceful and light even as she just strolled the several feet from the showers to the lockers. Her muscles worked with artisan like precision, her quads and calves tensing with anticipation and swelling ever so slightly when they took up her weight. The blocks of her lower abs just barely defined themselves as her hips swayed while the upper blocks moved in and out with her breathing. Her breasts were bigger and fuller than they looked when she was clothed, pert and barely affected by gravity at all. Jan was more beautiful just out of the shower than lots of famous, glamorous models were even after hours in a make-up chair. She was like a work of art come to life, an impossible mix of soft and very, very hard.

Jan tilted her head and shook it vigorously as she finally made it to the lockers. "Did a marble come loose in there?", LaShaunta asked. "You don't have too many of those to spare."

Jan chuckled, causing the bricks of her abdominal wall to reveal themselves again. "You're just full of jokes aren't you", Jan replied then laid her towel down and sat on it.

LaShaunta turned towards Jan twice looking like she wanted to say something, but twice she turned away. Jan extended one of her long legs and rubbed a fragrant moisturizer into her always soft skin when LaShaunta turned for a third time. "Okay, this might seem weird, but how long are you usually friends with somebody before you let them see you completely naked?"

Jan laughed. "You're right. It's weird."

"Come on… I'm curious.?"

"That depends. I mean I've been friends with Brian for a while and there's no way I'd let him see me naked."

"I'm talking about girl friends", LaShaunta clarified and Jan sighed.

"I had a friend named Wendy… or at least I thought she was my friend. We did all kind of stuff up to junior year in high school and one day after basketball practice I came out of the shower like I just did and I saw the jealousy in her eyes. I tried to tell myself that I was being ridiculous. I mean she saw me every day, but it got so bad between the two of us that we actually got into a fight. She hit me with a broom handle and I hit her with a right cross. We haven't spoken a word to each other since." Jan knew that the incident with Wendy was one of the reasons her parents had decided to ship her off to boarding school, but she wouldn't dwell on that or the fight.

Part of LaShaunta was shocked, but seeing Jan sitting next to her, she realized that jealousy wasn't farfetched either. "So are you trying to tell me something?", LaShaunta asked and motioned to Jan's naked body.

"Yeah", Jan began as she reached into the locker. "That I think you've got nothing to be jealous about."

"Aww. That's sweet."

Jan poked LaShaunta in the shoulder. "What about you? Now you've got to answer your own question."

LaShaunta grinned and took off her own towel, revealing her thoroughbred body with its hourglass curves, contoured muscles, and smooth milk chocolate skin. "Two year minimum" a suddenly naked LaShaunta told Jan before tossing her long braided hair over her shoulder.

"Wow, that's really specific", Jan replied with a frown while counting the months since they'd met.

LaShaunta laughed. "That's cause I just made it up. I've never even thought about any of that stuff until a minute ago."

"I walked into that didn't I?", Jan asked as she pulled her dress from the locker.

"Yep", LaShaunta replied with a grin.

Morgen Stern took a couple of quick steps and held open the door for a woman with a bag of groceries and two kids in tow. She thanked him and he just smiled, making the woman momentarily drop all the other thoughts in her mind. He was so handsome, maybe the best looking guy she'd ever seen. Morgen came inside after the mom, but their paths diverged quickly as he headed to an apartment that he paid for but had never actually visited before. Instead of reaching for the key he knocked on the door and a female voice asked, "Who is it?"

"Tell him it's Morgen."

A cute young woman opened the door a moment later and instantly began to wonder if she'd spent the night with the wrong guy after seeing Morgen. His face bordered on pretty. His suit probably cost more than her car and he smelled wonderful. She moved out of the way to let Morgen come through the door. He saw that she was fully clothed while Alain came out of the bedroom wrapping a robe around his buff body. Morgen stepped towards the kitchen while Alain said something in the young woman's ear that made her giggle and fawn over him. A moment later she left and Alain joined Morgen in the kitchen. "I hope you didn't expect me to stay in this place all alone all the time."

"I didn't say anything about her, nor was I going to. You can fuck whomever you want so long as I get what I want. So were you able to break into the account?"

"It was child's play", Alain said and motioned for Morgen to follow him into the other room where his computers were set up. "The US Government should train their people in better password management. Anyway, I've got this guy's messaging cloned, so you can see all of the internal memos and emails he writes or receives."

Morgen spun the laptop towards him and read that Jim Napolitano's wife wanted him to get some milk from the grocery store and that his bosses wanted him to find them some secure hospital rooms as quickly as he could. Alain's timing couldn't have been better. "Did you get the ID templates from Hans?"

Alain turned and pulled a small box from a shelf. "I did and here are your identification badges, but why couldn't your friend at the consulate just make them himself?"

"Because", Morgen began as he started looking the badges over, "I need Hans to keep his job and not get arrested."

Alain watched Morgen look the cards over finally nodding his head at their accuracy. "So I can go back to my normal life now, right?", the Frenchman asked with a grin.

"This is your normal life now", Morgen said back. "You work for me and if you do as I ask, you get to keep working for me. As for the rest of it… the British, French, and Italian governments seized all of your assets, so you're flat broke. Everything you have, I have furnished. Once you start making a living for yourself though, you can move out of this place and find one more to your liking."

"I don't have any money because you haven't let me make any money since I've been here!", Alain growled angrily.

"That's because you haven't made me any money since I got you out of that NATO cell, not yet. You will soon, but for now you're still paying back your debts to me. Once we're square, I'll tell you." Morgen headed towards the door. "Until then, keep doing good work like this."

"That's great!", Jan exclaimed into her phone then pulled it back. "Cassie got that internship she was talking about", she explained to LaShaunta who was looking over her shoulder before changing lanes on I-285, which was serious business at any time of day.

"That's great", LaShaunta finally replied once they were safely in the exit lane and her brand new Saturn Sky was still completely intact. "When does she start?"

Jan relayed the question. "The beginning of the next month", Jan relayed the answer. "Did you see Ian Brooster when you were there?" The conversation meandered its way from topic to topic as they tended to do and LaShaunta chuckled when she heard Jan ask if Cassie's family ever cooked normal food like a burger and fries. Usually LaShaunta hated listening to half of a conversation, but in this case Jan's questions and some of her answers had actually been entertaining.

LaShaunta pulled her car next to the gas pump and hopped out with Jan still deep in conversation. Heads turned as she stepped out of her car and went to the pump, flipping her long braided hair over her shoulder. Her peerless legs, ass, and hips were encased in a pair of white skin tight jeans. Eyes were captivated by her every movement as she turned back and leaned into her car to retrieve her credit card, giving those right behind her a view of perhaps the best, roundest ass they'd ever seen in their lives. When she stood up and turned they realized that the rest of her was just as awesome.

When Jan got out of LaShaunta's brand new car there were audible gasps. Jan hooked some of her ash brown locked behind her ear as she continued to talk to Cassie. Her dress hugged her long body in all the right places and her walk alone was like an aphrodisiac. Jan stopped after a few steps and turned to look over the sport car's roof to ask, "Shaunie I'm going in the store, you want anything?"

"Don't worry about it", she replied and pulled her card out of the reader once more. "I've got to come in anyway. This machine's not working." Jan walked ahead while LaShaunta took the time to retrieve her car keys before going towards the market's door. The store was expansive on the inside with some picnic style benches set up across from a food counter that served chicken, pulled pork, but LaShaunta's nose picked out the scent of frying fish and her mind instantly went back to her old Southwest Atlanta neighborhood. LaShaunta had come into the market to pay for some gas and maybe to get a bottle of Vitamin Water, but she found herself standing near the food counter. She'd just finished a great workout and the responsible part of her brain told her that there was no way she should eat some greasy fried food, but she couldn't stop herself. "One fish sandwich", she told the cook, who'd been eyeing her since she'd walked in anyway. Now as he prepared the skillet, he could only take glances over his shoulder at this fine specimen of the female form.

Jan was near the coolers in the back of the building trying to figure out what she wanted, but paying more attention to Cassie anyway. She leaned past the potato chip rack that blocked the central aisles of the store to see LaShaunta waiting by the food counter. Jan figured out all by herself that LaShaunta must have ordered something, so instead of being obnoxious Jan pushed open the screen door across a side exit and continued her conversation outside.

LaShaunta had just finished reading the fifth text from her little sister about her dance recital in Marietta, and had replied for the fifth time that she was definitely going to be there when the market's front doors were snatched open. Five heavily armed masked men rushed in using well rehearsed movements. LaShaunta was just as surprised as everyone else, but she her trained eyes picked out things the other people in the market couldn't. She assessed each man and things didn't look good. Even the fact that they were carrying relatively new Russian made PP-93s with updated suppressors wasn't good. These guys weren't low level street criminals. One secured the clerk behind the counter and the cook, while keeping an eye on LaShaunta who threw her hands up. The other three spread through the market gathering another employee who was trying to hide in the cooler and several customers who'd been browsing the aisles. They marched them all towards the front of the store and ordered everybody down to their knees. LaShaunta obeyed, but looked around at the same time. Jan wasn't anywhere to be found. Somehow she'd escaped these crooks' round up. LaShaunta smiled internally wondering what kind of whoop ass her tall friend was thinking up for these guys. LaShaunta carefully checked her phone, which was still in her hand to make sure Jan hadn't sent her a message detailing what to do. She hadn't, but that was fine. She'd come through soon enough.

"Time to pay up", the man who had to be the leader of this crew told the clerk who pushed the button to make the cash register drawer open. The lead robber laughed a humorless chuckle and pointed the submachine gun at the clerk's head. "That's insultin'. Give us that gamblin' count house money and I'll let your little joke slide. Fuck with me again and this place turns into a blood bath, you feel? I'll start with that slack jawed son of yours", the robber threatened and pointed the gun at the cook who began to tremble. The clerk's expression went from angry to terrified as he turned and unlocked the cabinet behind him. He shoved some rolls of receipt paper and coin wrappers out of the way and revealed a safe behind a false panel. "Now that's what I'm talkin about. Unlock that bitch then step aside. You pull that door open, and you die. Simple as that."

LaShaunta checked her phone again as the clerk dialed up the safe's combination, but still no message from Jan. LaShaunta started to wonder if maybe Jan was just going to let this play out. It's not like these robbers had hurt anybody so far, and they were taking money from illegal gambling after all. LaShaunta had no problem letting all of this play out, although she wouldn't have figured that this would be Jan's style.

The clerk looked on helplessly as the robber opened the safe to reveal stacks and stacks of bills ranging from singles to hundreds and everything in between. Another robber took control of the clerk, keeping him at gunpoint while the leader produced a cinch up laundry bag from his pocket and begin to fill it with money.

LaShaunta had to admit that this operation was going pretty smoothly and everybody was cooperating. Four of the five robbers looked like pros, but there was a jumpy one. There always had to be one. He gripped his weapon too tightly and kept pacing the aisles looking for trouble. There was a woman behind and to LaShaunta's right who was crying and a man directly behind her who praying rather loudly, but the robber in charge of the hostages didn't seem to mind. The jumpy one kept looking at them like he wanted to do something, but knew better than to cross another member of the crew.

"We thank you all for your patience", the robber in control of the hostages mocked. "This'll all be over real soon and you can go on with your merry little days." It seemed to amuse him, but it only caused tears from a couple more customers. The jumpy one just wished somebody would try something, but as the bag got to be half full, it seemed like nobody would. Then suddenly the screen door hinges squeaked, and people jumped when the spring slammed the screen door shut with a loud POP.

"So yeah", Jan began and headed towards the cooler with the bottled water. "That's what I think about him. Does he think you don't have standards!", Jan exclaimed as she pulled open the cooler and chose the biggest bottle of water they had, appreciating just how cold it was. The robbers at the front of the store all looked at each other in utter amazement as Jan continued her conversation as if a heist wasn't taking place at all. "There is no way I'd call him back! He's a complete jerk!" LaShaunta lowered her chin to her chest as a wave of empathetic embarrassment engulfed her. Jan wasn't planning a takedown, she was completely clueless.

The leader stopped filling the bag and looked at the front door to see if this might be a trick, then he motioned to the roving crew member to handle the problem. Everybody in the store knew what that meant including the ring leader, but he figured what the hell. That kid was going to kill somebody sooner or later and it might as well be that ditzy chatty bitch in the back of the store.

"I'm so glad I've talked some sense into you", Jan said as she approached the chip rack. She paused for half a second debating whether to grab a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, but thought better of it. If she bought one bag then she'd want two bags and then a bigger bag. She passed the rack with her willpower intact wondering why she smelled burning fish when the robber with the itchy trigger finger popped out from behind the chips and fired a single shot to the center of Jan's chest.

People screamed and the cook nearly passed out at the sight. The clerk yelled that they were monsters before catching a butt stroke to the stomach that put him down to his knees. LaShaunta just chuckled, but only the robber near her even noticed. The jumpy robber turned away and headed towards the front of the store to soak in the fear from the other customers and the attaboys from the rest of the crew, but after a couple of steps a gnawing feeling crawling from the back of his mind finally reached the front. Something was wrong. He hadn't heard the bottle of water hit the floor, or the six feet of dumb bitch either. He hadn't heard a cry, a moan, or even a gasp after the nearly silent gunshot. The robber turned and around and jumped like he'd seen a ghost.

Jan stood there, looking at the smoke waft from the jagged bleeding wound before raising her head and piercing that robber with the intensity of her burning blue eyes. He didn't know what to do and neither did the others. Everyone was in shocked disbelief. They watched emotions cloud Jan's face and the muscles in her upper chest and shoulders pulse. "Hey Cassie", Jan hissed angrily through clenched teeth. "I'm gonna have to call you back."

The robber tried to raise his gun, but Jan lunged and blasted a punch to the center of his masked face, shattering facial bones beneath her knuckles. The already frightened hostages screamed and reacted with near panic as the unconscious robber flew towards the front of the market. The other robbers moved in to engage whatever the hell had just taken a bullet to the chest then knocked out a grown man with one blow.

The robber nearest LaShaunta took one step towards the center aisle before she extended her leg and spun fast, sweeping his feet from beneath him. He held his gun with one hand while trying to break his fall with the other. She jumped to her feet from her knees and her sleek body revealed a few of its secrets when drew back and exploded a kick against the man's head.   The gun flew out of his hand and his head hit the floor so hard that it actually bounced. He groaned and rolled over to his back only to see the sole of LaShaunta's shoe just before the knockout blow. LaShaunta snatched up the gun, pulled out the magazine and emptied the chamber.

Jan rushed out of the aisle towards the next robber as he ran towards her. The gun fired, but Jan moved too faster than he could have imagined and the bullets flew past her. He changed his aim, but it was too late.  Jan was next to him in an instant. She gripped his head, using her big hand to palm his skull like a basketball. She lifted the man off the ground extending her arm only partly and then throwing this robber to the ground head first. The impact was tremendous and the former hostages cringed as the robber crashed to the floor. Jan hadn't killed him although she'd wanted to. Even with her rage coursing through her body, Jan remembered to retrieve the bad guy's gun and make it safe.

The robber standing near the cook took aim at LaShaunta and fired off a shot that hit the wall where she should have been. "What the fuck!", he uttered before a kick between his legs made him think that his nuts had just exploded. Tears welled in the robber's eyes, but he managed to stay on his feet. Now it was LaShaunta's turn to take out a little frustration. Jan hadn't enjoyed getting shot and she hadn't enjoyed getting shot at. She loaded up her first  as the robber turned and timed her strike perfectly. She'd coiled up her sleek power packed body and unleashed all that tension in one impressive strike. The six bricks of LaShaunta's abs showed through her top, so did the serratus and oblique muscles, cutting like razors down her sides. Her glutes tensed to iron hardness with the flexing going all the way to her hamstrings calves all the way to the ball of her plant foot. The form of the punch was perfect and the the smack of her knuckles hitting this man's jaw was followed quickly by the SNAP of his mandible breaking. The robber was unconscious before his head even hit the floor. LaShaunta exhaled to calm herself then reached out to take this robber's gun as blood leaked to the floor from the two teeth that LaShaunta had knocked out of his head.

The leader of the crew made a run for the door, but Jan jumped towards him and snatched him back into the store. He fell to the floor on his side as Jan straddled his body with her long legs. He looked up and hesitated as he saw the bloody, jagged bullet wound in her chest from up close. A heartbeat later he swung his gun towards her, but she caught it and stopped his progress cold. She didn't even seem to notice his struggle, and then his eyes opened wider when he saw this woman's muscles flex for the first time. Her forearms flexed like monsters were trying to tear through her skin as the color left her fingers. The robber heard the stamped metal body of the machinegun squeal just before Jan's fingers pieced the outside of the gun, but she didn't stop there. He watched her biceps tense and her triceps bulge as she squeezed even harder. The pressure inside the hardened steel chamber increased so much that bullet fire without being struck by the firing pin. The bullet slammed into the wall but another couldn't enter the chamber because it was too misshapen. Striations sliced across Jan's bulging muscles as she closed her fingers with one final crush that flattened the machinegun to malformed cylinder of metal about as thin as an empty tube of toothpaste. The lead robber never saw that happen because he passed out before she was finished. Normally Jan would have laughed at this man's weakness, but she was so mad that it took real effort for her to keep from jamming his flattened Russian made machinegun down his throat. She stood up, still holding the crushed gun and looked back towards the other people in the store.

They were too stunned and shocked to react to what they'd seen. As afraid as they'd been of the five robbers they were suddenly terrified of the two women who stood very near them. Jan thought she'd have gotten used to seeing the expressions on those people's faces, but she hadn't. If she hadn't still been so angry her spirits would have sank, but the clerk didn't share the other's fear. LaShaunta followed him as he rushed from behind the counter. "Thank you!", he declared as he bent down next to Jan to retrieve his money. "I don't know what the hell just happened, but thank you both!"

Jan looked past the clerk to the hostages.  "We're not the bad guys. You can run away now", she told them with a tone that instructed them to leave more than suggested it. A couple of customers looked at LaShaunta and at Jan for a moment before bolting for the doors.

"You two destroyed them and saved my ass", the clerk exclaimed joyously. "If you two need anything... anything at all you just have to ask!"

"Actually", Jan began as she walked towards the clerk making no effort to hide the hole in her chest. "We're gonna need all of your security footage."

The clerk nodded. "Let me get it."

"Just give us the whole recorder to be on the safe side", LaShaunta chimed in then accepted the VCR sized box from the clerk. "Glad we could help."

"You might want to call the cops", Jan suggested as she stepped over a stirring robber, "before these guys wake up."

The cook waited until Jan and LaShaunta had walked out to turn to his father. "You're just going to let them take our equipment like that?!?"

The clerk chuckled. "How the hell could we have stopped them? Besides, I wasn't going to show that footage to the cops anyway. Now take this cash downstairs to the other spot before the police get here."

Jan and LaShaunta were outside heading towards the car when LaShaunta slapped her knees laughing hysterically. "I can't believe you got shot!"

"That is so not funny!", Jan said back trying to stifle a chuckle of her own.

"Of course it's funny! You know, I hate to say it Jan, but your legend lost a little bit of its luster today. There's just no way around it. The great and mighty Jan Caufield was nearly felled by an idiot's bullet!" LaShaunta tossed the recording device in the car then looked across the roof at Jan and laughed all over again.

"So I'm a badass with one S now?", Jan joked then grimaced as she chuckled.

"Exactly!"

"You are so mean", Jan exclaimed then stopped a few feet from LaShaunta's car and dug the flattened slug from her chest. She observed the bloody bullet for a moment and was about to toss it away when LaShaunta stopped her.

"You should keep that slug as a memento of shame", LaShaunta continued her teasing and started the engine, noting that the fuel was still low.

"I distinctly remember you on your knees with your hands in the air", Jan countered after tossing the flattened gun onto the floorboard and the flattened bullet down a storm drain.

"That's cause I was waiting for you to make your move!"

Jan laughed again, but this time with almost no pain since her bullet wound was already gone. "Okay Shaunie, you keep telling yourself that."

LaShaunta turned towards Jan and smiled. "Don't worry, I will. Most importantly I'm gonna tell everybody else that too."

"Wait", Jan exclaimed as LaShaunta pulled out of the gas station. "Don't tell Sara and Alisha about this." LaShaunta laughed harder. "No, come on Shaunie. Don't tell them I got shot like that. It's so embarrassing!"

A couple of days later, Lt. Smithson seemed apprehensive as he approached Alex about an hour after the start of her shift. Alex pretended not to notice as he came up to her. "We've got to move a prisoner for an attorney consult, but it wasn't on the schedule. Some kind of screw up in administration, anyway", the lieutenant continued, "we're trying to put a movement team together post haste."

"I'll be on the team, sir", Alex agreed immediately. She wanted the experience, since she'd never done it.

"I'd feel bad if I didn't tell you first that we're moving your father. Still want to help?"

Alex nodded. "I kinda figured it was going to be him to be honest."

When it was time for the move, 'Gary' now known by his real name Aeneas Young, turned towards the wall and put his hands behind his back. Once his compliance was observed through the camera and through the one way glass, a dozen guards entered his room and worked quickly to secure the area and the inmate. The two most experienced officers approached first with a specially made hood that cut off 99^% of electro-magnetic radiation so the inmate couldn't' see anything at all. It was standard procedure since there was an inmate in the Bunker who could see through walls and another who could shoot beams of light out of his eyes. Alex came in quickly carrying the restraints. Instead of using the robot restraints, they used the weaker Mark 1 restraints, but at least they used three of them. Alex put her father's hands in one restraint while others officer secured his elbows. A modified Mark 1 restraint went around the inmate's ankles so he couldn't take full strides, or at least it would be difficult for him to. Alex had felt the Mark 1 restraints and she'd felt her father's strength first hand. She figured that it would take him no more ten seconds to free himself from the three Mark 1 restraints, but he didn't put up any resistance.

Alex was the 'hands on' officer. She physically touched Aeneas as they lead him to the big armored elevator that took them to the proper floor. Then they made some unnecessary turns before entering one of the private interview rooms. These rooms were almost as secure as the most secure cells in the bottom of the Bunker and for a prisoner as dangerous as this one they had the SORT team prepped and ready for movement. Half of the guards had left the room once the inmate sat down in the magnetic chair behind the magnetic table. They were pretty sure Aeneas could overpower the magnets that kept inmates from using the chairs or tables as weapons, but at least he couldn't have maneuvered them quickly. Besides, everybody felt pretty safe with Alex standing right behind him.

Alex hadn't been sure how she'd feel being this close to her father again, but she wasn't actually feeling much of anything. He wasn't just another inmate, and she had some conflicting emotions inside her, but there wasn't an emotional flood either. Suddenly, her father decided to change that. "Could all you other officers wait out in the hallway?", he asked from beneath the hood. "I'd like to speak to my daughter alone before my asshole attorney gets here to ruin my day."

Alex was stunned and the other guards pressed in close in case he tried something. "Come on, Alexandra. I know you're there. I can smell that perfume you like and as many times as you punched me with those hands, I recognize them too."

Now Alex's heart began to pound faster, but she didn't let it show. Deep down she wanted to have a conversation with this man, but didn't believe she would ever have had an opportunity. She'd take this one. "It's all right, everybody. I'll be fine", she said.

"Are you sure?", one of the other officers asked and Alex nodded.

"Yeah", she replied knowing that at this point she had to have this conversation. Her father had been a model prisoner so far, but that's because so far he'd wanted to be. If he wanted to cause trouble, then he'd make what Peter Cooper did look like an appetizer. When all the other officers were out of the room, Alex pulled off her father's hood.

He squinted against the harsh LED lights as he looked up then he smiled. "Wow you've gotten beautiful. Just like your mother."

"Don't start talking about my mother", Alex said back with more heat than she'd wanted to convey.

Her father chuckled. "I knew Ginny since we were three years old, and she was my wife. I've got as much a right to talk about her as anybody. But it's you I want to talk about. You know, I'm really glad you're on that side of the bars instead of this side… so to speak."

"What the hell do you care?"

Aeneas let out a long sigh. "You're my only child. Of course I care what happens."

"You're no father to me!"

"Come on Alex", Aeneas exclaimed. "Do you think I'm the kind of guy who could have taught you how to ride a bike or could have driven you to the movies for a double date or sat there and frowned when your prom date showed up? Ginny could do a better job raising you alone than if I'd been there. We both know that. But I've kept an eye on you over the years."

"You what?", a frowning Alexandra demanded. "You just watched from afar to see me flounder around and mistake my way through life for years and years. Did you enjoy it?"

"Some of it", Aeneas admitted with a smile. "You made some of the same mistakes I did, and some others that not even I got myself into. But there were times when you surprised me in a good way, like right now seeing you in that uniform. It makes me proud. Your mother would be proud too."

"There you go again", Alex growled through clenched teeth. "Every time you mention my mother I just remember sitting on the front row looking around to see if you'd make an appearance at her funeral, or her burial. You weren't even there, and yet you keep bringing her up. Are you just trying to make me mad! You want me to attack you so I can lose my job!?!"

"I was there", Aeneas said and Alex saw some actual emotion on his face for the first time. "I came to the funeral home late at night after the visitation to say good-bye to her when no one else was around. I was bad for her… we were bad for each other really. We couldn't stay together, but I cared for Ginny."

"So are you going to tell me that you cared for me too?"

"I do", he said. "It's in my own way, but they're so many things you think you know that you just don't."

"Like what?"

"Like your mother was gifted for one! Did you know that?" The shock on Alex's face was all the answer her father needed. "She could actually breathe underwater among other things. When we were twelve, the two of us went to the lake and I tried to outdo her. I stayed underwater for half an hour and eventually passed out. She had to drag me to the shore and turn me over to let the water drain out of my lungs. Why do you think we understood each other so well? That didn't mean our relationship was always good, and I used you as a way to get back at Ginny a time or two. I shouldn't have. For that, Alexandra… I'm sorry." He looked down towards the table. "You didn't see me until you were what six, seven?"

"Seven."

"Well I saw your mother several times between when you were born and when she told me about you. We crossed paths at least a dozen times and spoke on the phone more often than that, but she didn't decide to mention you until I walked into the apartment that night and she couldn't hide you anymore. She had to tell me something and at least she told me the truth, but Alex, she could have told me about you the day you were born. Hell, she could have told me when she was pregnant, but she knew I'd probably come back to stay, and she didn't want that at all."

"You're lying!", a suddenly tearful Alex accused.

"I've got nothing at all to lie about. I shouldn't have thrown you through the wall, but I was so mad at Ginny that it was either her or you, and if you really were my child then you'd be able to survive it. I'm not a perfect man, Alexandra. Hell, I'm not even a good man, but I'm not lying. She probably didn't even tell you about your name", he said as Alex wiped tears.

"You don't remember, but when Ginny told me that you were mine, I didn't even ask your name because I already knew it. Before the two of us married, we picked out names for our kids. If we had a girl, our first one was going to be Alexandra Marie. If you'd had a sister, she would have been named Amy, to complete the joke."

"Our initials", Alex said and smiled despite the teary eyes.

"Exactly", Aeneas said. "Look, I haven't been a father to you. I admit that, but I need you to do something for me. I assume you're the one who told the government my real name, which is fine. My little game wouldn't have lasted forever I suppose. But if they know who I am then they're going to interview your aunt and uncle. Virge will be fine, but your Aunt Helen's been frail for years. I've been keeping an eye on her, but since I'm in here I can't.

"That's your family", Alex shot back. "What have you ever done for me?"

"I told you that I kept an eye on you. Who do you think got you out of that jam in Omaha? That was me. I figured you'd finally gotten yourself into a situation that you couldn't get away with scot free, since you went around using your real name. And getting you out of that jam took some doing, let me tell you."

Alexandra wasn't sure if her father had mentioned Omaha to show her that he helped her, or to show her that he knew some information that could ruin her budding career with the government. It was probably some combination of the two, but she wouldn't let his threat sway her. "Still, it's like you admitted, you've never been a father to me."

"That didn't stop them! Helen and Virgil came down to visit you not ten days after I told them I had a child. They brought their spouses and their kids, your cousins, down to get to know you. They visited you all the time. Don't take your feelings about me out on them. You're no better than me if you do that", Aeneas challenged. Alex felt the rebuke but didn't relent. "Helen helped you plan Ginny's funeral, took all that off of your hands and you can't make sure some overeager Fed doesn't put her in the grave too?" Aeneas tried a softer tact. This time he broke through Alex's defenses.

"What the hell could I do anyway? I'm the lowest of the low on the totem pole."

Aeneas threw his head back and laughed. "You run this place and everybody knows it, guards and inmates both. We communicate with each other and everybody in here knows what you did to Peter Cooper. From what I've heard, you might have passed me by little lady, but I always suspected you would. The other inmates respect you and more importantly they fear you. These other guards are nice and all, but they know you could bring this place down around them if you chose to. I bet you right now they're out there hoping and praying that we're not in here hatching an escape plot together or something else like that."

Once again Alex looked shocked. That thought hadn't even crossed her mind. "They couldn't stop us if we were, and they know that. But the reason they left us in this room alone in the first place is because they trust you, just like I'm trusting you to look after Helen."

Alex sat down across from her father and leaned towards him. "Tell me why you tried to beat me to death when I was sixteen."

"I'd made some bad investments just before that", her father started without hesitation. "I had to see if you could make some money on your own. I knew you were strong and capable, but I wanted to see if you could handle yourself without getting killed. At first I was just going to test you for a few minutes, but you kept fighting and fighting. That was one of the times you surprised me."

"So all that was a cost cutting business move? Do you know what that did to a teenage girl's mind, having her father attack her?"

"No, I didn't think about it like that back then. I just thought, 'Hey she's really strong and really durable. She can get into the rackets like I did and probably do better because she's prettier than I've ever been.' But it's like I said, Alex. I'm not a good man, but your aunt Helen's a great woman."

"Yes she is", Alex agreed after a few moments of thought. "I guess I can take a couple of days to go to Wisconsin. Just know I'm doing it for her and not for you."

Jan rushed through the apartment complex's gate and went way over the posted 20 mph speed limit as she headed towards her building which was near the back. She'd just attended a very nice talk from historian David McCullough in the library but now she was in a hurry to get to the gym to grab a quick workout then teach her jiu-jitsu class. Sometimes Jan wished there were two of her, one to do all the stuff she'd obligated herself to do and another one who could sit and chill, play the piano, learn a bit of guitar or watch movies all day. Until somebody figured out how to make a copy machine for humans she was on her own. She was about to park when a champagne colored Ford charged in front of her. Jan slammed on her brakes and lurched forward hard enough for the seatbelts to lock.

"What's your fuckin problem?", Jan yelled across the lot after pulling into her place and exiting the car.

"I don't have time for your shit today!", Alex yelled back and to her surprise the annoying neighbor started coming towards her. That tall strutting peacock always wanted to pop up when Alex was already in a sucky mood. Today was no different.

"I haven't even give you any shit yet!", a pink faced Jan yelled. "You know what! I'm tired of you treating me like I've done something. Maybe I should really do something worth you being mad at!"

"Well go ahead!", Alex screamed, releasing some frustration from her little chat with her father. "You walk around here like you own the place anyway. You expect everybody to bow down when you walk by, to give you EVERYTHING you want!"

Jan stepped up to Alex again towering over her even though she was wearing sneakers this time. "If some stupid jealousy is worth an ass kicking then so be it, but this time your boyfriend's not here to save your little ass."

Alex couldn't help but laugh. Max hadn't been trying to save her. He'd saved Jan from an ass whipping that she'd never be able to forget. This neighbor had no idea who the hell she was messing with. Alex was a half a second away from grabbing her by her cute little ponytail and tossing her to the top of a tree, which she could do with a flick of her wrist, instead she stepped forward until there was barely an inch between them. "You think I'm jealous of you?!?"

Jan's eyes seemed to burn a hotter as she stared down at Alex then she took a deep breath. "You know what… I actually don't care what your problem is. Whatever beef you have with me is fine. I don't care." Jan was actually pretty proud of herself as she turned away. The Jan from a few years earlier would have decked that silly little chick. Jan was about to step back onto the sidewalk when she felt a hard shove that sent her careening forward. Jan's long arms pinwheeled as she fought for balance. She took one long stabilizing step, her calves and quads flexing in sharp relief as she gathered herself. She heard Alex's laughter before even turning around and when she did, she saw the much smaller prison guard laughing hysterically.

Jan could only guess at the consequences, but as Alex threw her head back Jan loaded up and smashed a straight right hand to the center of Alex's joyous face. Alex allowed herself to sway back a little at the surprise impact. That was a halfway decent punch, probably better than the average guy could hope to deliver. Now Alex knew that her neighbor's muscles weren't just for show. Not that they'd do her any good.

Jan stood square to Alex not knowing exactly what was going to happen but suddenly Alex's right arm shot up and Jan's eyes zeroed in on the punch. She shifted her head slightly allowing the punch to sail past. A left was already on its way, but Jan leaned back as Alex's arm came forward until she ran out of reach and the punch stopped before making contact. "You should stop now", Jan warned and Alex reached forward to push Jan, but just as her hands touched Jan's torso, the tall neighbor spun at the waist allowing Alex to slip past her and stumble against the curb ending up on her hands and knees. Now it was Jan's turn to laugh. "Alright, this scrap's over. I thought you might be a challenge, but you can't even stay on your feet. Give it up before you get hurt!"

Those words made Alex fire breathing mad. Her lips curled into a snarl and she shot towards Jan like LaShaunta out of the starting blocks on the track. Jan didn't back up, but she widened her base, putting her right foot back and as Alex sped towards her Jan unleashed a perfectly timed right hand that connected square on Alex's jaw. The smack of that punch echoed between the buildings and the blow itself would have knocked down a pro boxer, but it just turned Alex's head while the rest of her kept coming. Jan didn't have time to reason what had just happened before Alex drove her shoulder into Jan's cast iron hard abs. The tall girl's stomach didn't give, but Alex forced Jan back against the car. Jan reached out and grabbed one of Alex's arms attempting to separate them, but Alex gripped Jan's legs hard and lifted the bigger girl off the ground. Jan let go of Alex and thrust out her arm in a vain attempt to soften her fall, but Alex twisted nearly all the way round before slamming Jan down hard on the asphalt.

Alex was satisfied when she heard some air leave Jan's lungs as they came down. She found herself sitting on Jan's stomach and her knuckles itched to smash against her neighbor's face, but before she could even sit up to throw punches she felt Jan's arms encircle her head. Almost impossibly Jan was able to pull her knee back far enough to knee Alex in the ribs fairly hard. That shock of mild pain was only the beginning. Jan bucked her hips and in the blink of an eye Alex was on the ground face down with Jan no longer beneath her. Alex started to spin, but Jan was on her back almost instantly, keeping Alex right where she wanted her. Jan allowed Alex lift her head just to smash it back down to the ground. This was about as much as Alex could take, but instead of pounding her or getting up, Jan slipped one arm beneath Alex's chin and circled the other one behind her head. The choke was applied so quickly and so expertly that Alex almost wanted to break this bitch's arms then congratulate her. The choke wasn't affecting Alex at all even as her neighbor's biceps flexed up like mountains. Unfortunately for her neighbor, Alex was tired of messing around. She leaned back, lifting herself off the ground and forcing Jan nearly upright.

Before Jan could wrap her long legs around Alex's middle to regain control, Alex reached back over her shoulder and grabbed a handful of Jan's shirt. She tugged while whipping her shoulders forward. Jan flew up and over Alex. She held onto her hold until Alex simply pulled herself free. Jan landed in the grass next to a young dogwood tree and rolled immediately, putting some distance between her and Alex before pulling her knees towards her chest and bounding up to her feet, keeping her eyes on Alex the entire time. "Cute and lucky", Jan hissed and Alex gave a little grin as they approached each other again.

Walt had worked as a security guard at the complex for three years, ever since he moved to Atlanta and he'd counted himself lucky that entire time. The area had almost no crime and aside from a hazy Fed takedown of some drug runners a few months back, the worst thing Walt dealt with were delinquent kids or alcohol fueled arguments, but now he had a real fight on his hands, and it wasn't just any resident fighting. It was Jan Caufield. She was as close to a queen of the complex as any woman could hope to be. She was gorgeous beyond words plus she'd always been so nice to Walt and all the staff from gardeners to garbagemen. Alexandra was beautiful too especially when she wasn't scowling. She looked like she should have fit in with the group of friends along with Jan, Sara, Alisha, and the other new girl LaShaunta, but she didn't. Walt had seen the friction, but he could only guess what had started this fracas. He did know that he couldnt' just stand there transfixed by two beautiful women actually fighting each other. He had to do something. He waited until they separated themselves to rush in.

"Hold it! Hold it!", he yelled in his official security guard voice as he rushed up behind Alex then stepped between them holding his arms apart. "Ladies please. I'd hate to have to write up a complaint to the management, or worse yet… call the cops." He looked to Alex and then to Jan who shrugged then nodded. Alex just walked towards her apartment without saying a word, ending the short but spirited tussle. She didn't get the satisfaction of finishing the brawl, but in the end what did finishing mean anyway. She felt like an elephant playing with a bug anyway. At any moment she could have squashed that bitch, but what would that have accomplished. She was still smiling though as she entered her apartment and headed towards the bedroom.

Jan was ashamed of herself and angry. There was no way she should have let herself get worked up enough to actually fight. She was so upset with herself that Jan didn't stop to wonder how a woman at least 60 pounds lighter than her had been able to absorb two really good punches. The first one should have put her on her ass and the second one could have knocked out a small horse, but Jan's mind was elsewhere. Between getting shot by some loser and this stupid fight, Jan wasn't having one of her best weeks. Hopefully teaching her students would lift her mood.

"I had to fight somebody while at the same time pretending like I'm touching rose petals", Alex explained to Max that night over dinner. "I mean I've heard of fighting with one hand tied behind your back, but I'm fighting with both hands tied behind mine. I mean I could jam my pinky through her fucking skull, the bitch!", she exclaimed then laughed.

Max shook his head. "Babe, you probably started it, just being honest. It's like you want to torment that girl, and what if she'd pulled out a weapon. What if she had a gun and shot you or a knife? Then you'd be back up there in front of Agent Wills or MacCallum trying to explain how some random person knows about enhanced humans all of a sudden. At least they'd probably be on your side", he added.

"Maybe", Alex said softly remembering Agent Wills' trip to the neighbors' apartment.

"What was that, Babe?", Max asked.

"Nothing", Alex said before stabbing a stalk of broccoli with her fork. "On a completely different note", she began. "I had a conversation with my father this morning."

Alex could have taken a plane, but a long drive was more relaxing and gave her time to put her mind in the right place. She eased down the narrow road to her aunt's tidy house outside of Milwaukee and couldn't even pull into the driveway to park. Two government issued sedans were parked there and there was a van parked just in front of the mailbox. Two sport jacket wearing agents flanked doors and followed Alex's rental car as she parked her car in front of the van. The two agents shared a look as she approached the front door.

"I'm Alexandra Young and this is my aunt's house. I'm just coming to visit", Alexandra explained as one of the agents stepped forward to block her path. Alex slowly reached into the inside pocket of the jacket Max had bought for her and handed over her ID from the Bureau of Prisons. The other agent came up and scanned the barcode with a portable wand and waited the couple of seconds for the screen to tell him that the ID was legit.

"There's an investigation taking place", the first agent said. "We can't let anyone inside."

Alex stood there on the walkway for a moment before taking a quick step towards the window and before either of the agents got to her Alex peeped through the glass and saw her aunt sitting in a chair, surrounded by guys looking exasperated and scared.

"You're lucky you're DOJ. That's the only reason I don't arrest you for interfering with an investigation", the first agent told Alex after she turned around.

Alex put a hand on her hip and turned to look at both agents. "You two know who I am don't you?"

"We were briefed that the niece might show up."

"Then you know that you couldn't arrest me unless I allowed you to. Now I'm going in there. One of you can accompany me if it makes you feel better", Alex told the two agents then shouldered past them towards the door. Alex watched the two men share another look before the first agent to speak started walking behind her.

Everybody in the house turned towards the front door when it opened since they weren't supposed to be disturbed. Helen smiled when she saw Alex standing there while the agents frowned. "What's going on Burnette?"

"This is the subject's niece", he declared and the agents saw her clearly once Alex started towards the kitchen, bypassing the agents and walking into Helen's embrace.

"It is so good to see you", Helen exclaimed as they hugged, but Alex was appalled. Her aunt had always been slim, the two of them shared similar body types, but beneath her clothes she was skin and bones. She was obvious emotionally spent after dealing with all the Federal Agents in her home too.

"l should have called you", Alex whispered into Helen's ear then pulled away to face the agents standing around them.

"I'm Special Agent Loomis, and I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the premises while we conduct this portion of the investigation into Aeneas Young."

Alex made a show of looking around the kitchen before turning back to Agent Loomis and saying, "I don't see Mr. Young here. Do you think he's hiding under the floorboards? You know what, never mind that. I wouldn't want you guys tearing up my aunt's house. How long have they been coming here?", Alex asked Helen.

"Every day for more than a week. It was just one or two agents at first, but for the last three days these people have all come here", she answered in a weak, wavering voice.

"She has not answered all of our questions to my satisfaction", Agent Loomis stated and Alex's expression hardened.

"Leave a list of questions and I'll get them answered, but your interrogation of my aunt is over. You people need to leave."

Agent Loomis stepped forward. "Officer Young, I don't think you understand."

"No!", Alex shouted and everybody flinched which made Helen grin. A couple of agents even put their hands near their guns. Alex took a moment to compose herself before she continued, "Do you want the answers to your questions, or do you just want to sweat a sick woman who can't offer any resistance?"

"Our questioning level was stepped up because the subject, your aunt, has been evasive."

"Some of your questions don't have anything to do with my brother. We all knew he was a crook and eventually they'd either build a prison to hold him or somebody would figure out how to kill him, but I've got nothing at all to do with any of it. I lived my life far away from Anie."

"But he brought you money", Agent Loomis said back and Helen threw up her hands.

"I've already told you. Me and my ex-husband didn't have a lot of money when our kids were coming up, so yeah, when Anie came by with a few bucks, both of us agreed to take it. And he didn't ever ask for anything in return."

"She seems like she's cooperating to me", Alex said. "Now, leave me that list and I'll make sure you get all of your answers within a day or two."

"That's not good enough", Agent Loomis declared then looked over his shoulder. "Burns, I think we've been accommodating enough to Officer Young. Remove her from the premises."

Alex couldn't believe that these guys were really going to try and remove her against her will, but then Agent Burns grabbed her wrists and Alex's forehead gathered at the pain. The above average sized agent quickly pulled Alex's arms behind her back.

"You let her go!", Helen screamed as Agent Burns wrapped his arms around Alex's slim body and lifted her off the ground.

"People like you just don't understand the chain of command", Loomis told Alex then motioned for Burns to take her out.

"I'll be fine", Alex told her aunt as Burns carried outside.

"Now, let's get back to business", Loomis told Helen ominously.

"Are you going to charge her?", a worried Helen asked.

Agent Loomis smiled. "That depends entirely on you."

Alex didn't resist as Agent Burns carried her outside since there was no reason to damage her aunt's house, but once they got to the middle of the yard, Agent Burns felt Alex's arms flex impossibly hard an instant before she threw them open breaking his grip with relative ease. Burns reached for her, but she spun and pushed him away. He stumbled for several feet but kept his balance. Agent Burnette reached for his weapon, but Burns held up a hand.

"Officer Young, you need to cooperate. I'm trying not to hurt you."

"I think it's funny that you can say that with a straight face. You think you're strong and tough, but you've never met anybody like me", Alex told Burns plainly. "You can't handle me any better than the moron over there with his hand on his gun, as if bullets will suddenly make me normal. I've been shot before", she yelled over to the agent near the stoop.

Now it was Burns' turn to grind he teeth. He snarled and charged Alex, attempting to grab her but got nothing but air as she stole a page from her annoying neighbor's book and deftly side stepped his attack. He lunged towards her though, and bashed his shoulder into Alex's chest. She was forced back and then he had her. Burns gripped both of her upper arms, but she shrugged out of his grip, leaving him holding her coat instead of her.

"This isn't the way to handle this", Alex told the now enraged Special Agent. Normally Alex would have reveled at the idea of beating the crap out of some guy, but not with so much on the line. She'd try a different approach.

Burns threw her coat to the ground and charged again. By now Loomis was standing in Helen's front door looking at his first fight between two naturally enhanced people. Loomis had seen Burns in action though and figured this would be pretty quick. He'd struggled a little with it, but last week Agent Burns had picked a Volkswagen completely off the ground so they could get to a suspect. There was no telling what Burns would do now that he was pissed off. Loomis decided to let the agent blow off a little steam against this silly young woman before calling him off. That way Helen would know there was no hope of stopping the interrogations, but then Loomis' stomach dropped to his ankles.

Alex dodged a left and then a right as Burns through relatively off balance punches. She thought about warning him once more, but then the image of her aunt popped into her mind. It was time to make her point. This wasn't like the fight with her neighbor. Alex didn't have to pretend she was touching rose petals right now. Burns threw a punch and instead of dodging it like before, Alex raised her left hand in front of her face and stopped his punch cold a couple of inches from her nose.

The smack echoed around the wooded cul-de-sac and Burns looked at his fist like it had malfunctioned. He gritted his teeth and added power, trying to grab this woman if he couldn't punch her, but he watched Alex's slim body harden like nothing he'd ever seen or even heard off. Her left arm was a tangle of sinews and ropey strands of pure muscle as she fought back Burns' best efforts without even a twitch of strain. He threw punches with his left arm, but she blocked them against her forearm, deflecting them while keeping her attention on his trapped fist. Burns stopped punching and now used both his arms to push against Alex. She grinned and stood firm as Burns rolled his shoulders forward. His sports jacket tore at the seams as his super powered muscles expanded. His shirt ripped down the center as his thick pecs grew bigger and bigger still, but Alex's arm didn't waver. "Ok, let me make this a fair fight", Alex said calmly and got down on her knees, letting Burns have every advantage possible. Burns put both hands against Alex's single hand and pushed with all of his might. He was rewarded by seeing the muscles along her arm tightened just that much more, but he couldn't move her arm a millimeter in any direction. The thickness of her triceps and deltoids continued to increase, but her insane definition trumped it all. Striated muscles piled atop itself when Alex started pushing back. Burns tried to keep his position, flexing his entire body to stay where he was, but Alex extended her arm and overpowered every muscle in his body. "Are you ready to stop so we can talk this out?", Alex asked as if she'd just gotten out of the car instead of completely humiliated a very strong man. Burns threw a punch in reply that Alex casually blocked.

"Ok then. I guess it's lesson time." Her eyes narrowed and her lower left arm defined itself into a den of vipers coiling beneath her skin as her thin fingers crushed Burns' fist. He cried out and sent a punch to Alex's face with his free hand, but this time she didn't try to block it. She let it land. Her slim, dainty looking neck solidified and trapezius muscles transplanted from a hardcore bodybuilder buttressed the effort as she absorbed Burns' punch without her head turning even a little. There was a tiny dot of red on her smooth skin after the impact. He paid for his punch though when Alex squeezed his trapped fist a bit tighter. He screamed as the pressure rose to bone breaking levels. He fought with more desperation, trying to pry off her fingers.

Burns and Burnette had been partners for a couple of years, and they generally liked each other. Which was why, without orders, he ran behind Alex wrapped his arm around her neck and applied a choke. Alex grinned because this choke attempt wasn't in the same league as the one her annoying neighbor had applied to her a couple of days earlier. This agent tried to pull her backwards. He kicked at the back of her legs and even stomped on her toes. That was where Alex drew the line. She gripped Burnette's arm and gave it a gentle squeeze that caused him to scream in torturous pain. She didn't hold on to him long, instead she casually flung him away. He landed twenty feet from her in the middle of the yard.

"That's enough!", Loomis screamed.

"Is it?", Alex fired back and turned to face him. Just then Burns thought he saw an opening. He jabbed his thumb towards Alex's left eye attempting a gouge. She pulled her head back then glared at the special agent. Her forearm muscles throbbed and Burns screamed like she was ripping off a limb. His bladder released a steady stream of urine down his leg as her fingers closed around his hand. He begged now and flinging spit and wet tears mixed as he pleaded. Burnette had made it to his feet by the time Alex finally let Burns go. He collapsed to the ground cradling his hand.

"I could have crushed it", she began as she turned towards Loomis and caught a glimpse of Agent Modine's gun before he pulled the trigger. Out of instinct Alex moved a fraction of an inch causing the shot to miss. Modine had never seen a person move so fast. He also saw the change of expression on Alex's face. This situation had just escalated, and now she wasn't sure exactly where she was going to take it. Burnette reached for his gun but Alex had other ideas. She ran towards him faster than he could draw. Modine wouldn't risk firing a shot so close to one of his fellow agents, so he was helpless as Alex drove a knee deep into Burnette's middle making him double over and nearly vomit. She gripped the stunned agent by the throat and tossed him towards the porch. Modine moved out of the way, but Agent Loomis and Agent Shaw attempted to break Burnette's fall. Both men fell down beneath him as he landed. The FBI agents felt as if things were getting away from them, but as Alex circled towards the driveway he saw his shot and he took it.

The bullet slammed into Alex's side and bright red blood instantly stained her blouse. She jumped high in the air. Modine took another shot that missed and Alex landed right next to him. He backed up as Alex reached for him, but two hands reached out and stopped her arms before she grabbed him. Alex turned to see Agent Burns. He grabbed Alex by the shoulders and threw her away from the porch. She rolled along the grass, and when she looked up Burns was right there.

Snarling and shouting a mighty war cry, Burns had his arms back as far as they would go before he swung forward like a derange baseball slugger, putting every single ounce of strength behind the swing. The big crowbar sang in the wind as it sped towards Alex's head. She tried to move out of the way, but her knee slipped on the moist grass and the crow bar hit her right in the temple. The sound echoed louder than the gunshots had. Alex went flying head first towards the street. The impact was so hard that Alex would have sailed all the way over the street to the wooded area on the other side if the FBI's van hadn't been in the way. The big vehicle shook when Alex slammed against the side of it.

For the first time in a long time, Alex was actually slightly dazed. Through starry vision she saw Burns running towards her. She pressed her back against the van and used it to help her stand up, and she'd just gotten to her feet when Burns stabbed the pointy end of the crowbar right into her bullet wound. She'd made a few of him comrades scream and now it was her turn.

Alex bit off her cry even as Burns leaned in, using his legs to press the steel harder into her middle. Alex looked at Burns and then down to the bar before gripping it with both hands. Now Alex was really pissed. If she'd been taking it easy on these guys, she stopped. Burns watched with horror when he saw Alex's muscles really flex for the first time. Her fingers lost color around the end of the crowbar and her forearms flexed up bloated skeins of hyper shredded muscle. The end of the solid steel bar seemed to implode beneath her fingers, getting flatter and thinner as she crushed it. The steel let out one muffle moan as Alex's fingers reduced even further before yanking her hands in opposite directions and ripping off the end of the bar, flinging steel and drops of blood in different directions. Burns tried to back away, but Alex grabbed hold of the rest of the bar that he was still holding and snatched him forward into her waiting fist. Burns nearly dropped to his knees, but he stayed on his feet as he staggered past Alex towards the van. He turned around just as Alex's fist was coming back. Her eyes narrowed as she loaded up and hit Burns with a real punch. She hadn't even hit Pete Cooper this hard during his escape attempt.

If the sound of the crowbar hitting Alex had sounded like a rifle shot, this punch blasted out waves of compressed air and sounded to people for a half mile around like a cannon had fired. Alex felt Burns' jaw and cheek bone break beneath her knuckles in the instant before he went flying. He slammed into the FBI van so hard that he sailed right through the metal on the passenger side and a split second later burst through the other side. The van teetered on its driver side wheels and for a moment it looked like it might right itself, but the force of the impact had been too great. The FBI van fell over its side with the crunching of damaged metal, but Agent Burns wasn't in danger of having the van fall over on him. He hit the ground in the middle of the street and rolled another fifty feet before finally stopping against the far curb. Alex was satisfied, but moved quickly when more bullets started flying her way. She went to the overturned van and gripped its exposed chassis. Now Alex's muscles really flexed as she lifted the two and a half ton van off the ground. Bits of broken glass fell to the street as Alex's biceps inflated to curl the weight. The chassis creaked as Alex spun around holding the van up like a massive battering ram. Her legs were just as ripped as her arms as she stepped into the yard and sank down to her ankles in the dirt with each step. The agents fired shot after shot, but none found their mark as Alex and her multi-ton load moved towards them. Loomis and Shaw ducked into the house while Modine and Burnette jumped towards the yard as Alex ran towards them holding the van out in front of her. Each man's adrenaline was off the charts now. They felt like they were in some sort of fantasy movie as this slim woman flexed up muscles that they didn't realize were possible.

Loomis looked through the windows as the van came flying towards the house when that crazy, extremely powerful woman threw it towards his agents. Loomis lost the visual when the agents ran out of sight. He heard Burnette moan and then there was a moment of silence before Modine let out a shriek. Then it was quiet again. Shaw and Loomis kept their guns trained on the front door as they retreated towards the kitchen. "Get out of my house!", Helen yelled. "Maybe she won't hurt you if you do."

"Stay the fuck out of the way before an accident happens!", Loomis screamed and then felt the worst pain of his life. His right hand hurt so bad that he opened his mouth to scream but couldn't utter a sound.

Shaw turned towards his boss just as Alex's left hand lashed out and gripped his throat. He tried to raise his gun to point it at Alex, but she tightened her fingers until Shaw's body twitched from lack of oxygen and from pain. She released Loomis then backhanded him across the face sending him spinning into the living room where he fell to the floor, unconscious. She waited until Shaw was knocked out before tossing him into the living room too. He landed with a thud that knocked over a couple of picture frames.

"Sorry Aunt Helen", Alex said and the woman smiled.

"That's alright dear", she replied and looked at the two agents unconscious on the floor before walking to the front door and seeing other two more agents knocked out in the yard. She had no idea where the fifth agent was. Most people would have been floored by seeing a damaged van sitting on its side a few feet from the flower garden, but Helen had grown up with Alex's father, and she'd seen this kind of thing before.

"I'm gonna clean up the yard, auntie, and I owe you a new knob for the back door", Alex said while checking out her bullet wound.

Helen barely heard any of that stuff as she walked over and moved Alex's hand out of the way to check on the wound. "Let me dress that for you."

"I'll let you clean it out a little later auntie, but it'll heal fine on its own."

"Are you sure?", Helen asked. "I remember the first time Anie came home with a bullet wound. I think he was sixteen or seventeen. He didn't let me dress it, trying to play the tough guy. Now he's got a little scar right here", she explained and pointed to a spot in the middle of her thigh.

"Auntie, you know I don't scar", Alex replied.

"Well maybe you're right. That bullet's not the biggest issue. You just beat up five FBI agents. What are you going to do now?"

"I've got an idea", Alex said and pulled her thankfully undamaged cell phone from her pocket. She dialed a number that she had programmed into speed dial months ago. The person on the other end answered after a couple of rings. "Hello Mrs. Worthington, I'm sorry to bother you, but I've got a problem I hope you can help me with."

more on the way soon...

Recent Chapters

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