Armen wasn't sure if he'd ever used his gift with so many eyes on him, but the only two he was concerned about were the beautiful blue-gray ones that belonged to his girlfriend. Armen had gone through great lengths to keep this part of his life from Sara, but there was no hiding it now. He dreaded her reaction to what she was seeing. Hopefully she'd understand.

Jan was in the ditch on the side of the road with her body draped over Don and a very injured woman. Her face was pressed to the grass while her arms were sunk into the soil nearly up to her elbows. Her perfect body was flexed from top to bottom, anticipating the shockwave and shrapnel about to come their way. She hoped her body would be enough to protect those beneath her. Her lip was curled into a snarl, waiting for the pain to hit her like an oncoming train, but it didn't happen. She felt the flash heat from the exploding truck and then nothing else. She raised her head up in time to see the explosion freeze in midair and start to unravel. She frowned in utter disbelief as the vertical tower of flames and super heated gas became a horizontal column that sped towards the embankment. Jan could hardly believe her own eyes.

Sara's eyes followed the column of flame towards the embankment where her expression changed from bewilderment to pure joy. Armen seemed like the brightest light in the world as he absorbed the explosion. His eyes didn't narrow against the light from the flames, although his face was set in concentration. Then, as the last of the heat and flames reached Armen's outstretched hand, the world itself seemed to dark. Sara couldn't speak as Armen rushed towards her. She couldn't even think. That's why Armen stopped suddenly when he ran into an invisible barrier. He could see Sara, Alisha, and some rescued people right in front of him, but he couldn't get any closer to them. Then Alisha nudged Sara's shoulder. "Oh right", she exclaimed and dropped the barrier.

"We better get these people away from these cars, in case I missed a spark", Armen said, but Sara barely heard him. Her mind was still catching up to what had happened and more importantly, what it meant. Alisha handed Armen the toddler, so she could lean down, and with surprising strength, drape the unconscious teen over her shoulder.

"Here, take this little one. I'll try and get the guy there", Armen said to Sara, but she shook her head.

"No. I've got these two." Armen had no idea what she meant, but two men floated off of the ground like they were on invisible stretchers as Sara stood up. Armen's smile lit up his entire face as he watched Sara 'carry' two adult men with what had to be telekinesis. Armen was just reaching the side of the side of the road when he heard some rustling from a bit further down. He turned and stared with slack jawed amazement as Jan came walking out of the ditch with a fucking car across her shoulders. She didn't even look like she as straining in the least. Still her muscles flexed harder than any muscles Armen had ever seen. Jan's legs were always otherworldly, but now Armen got to see them in their full glory, pumped, striated, and diamond hard. From the side her quad was muscular perfection and her shoulders were as big as ripe melons and completely shredded to the bone. And then he saw her arms start to bulge like balloons filling with pure muscle. Her triceps swelled and her deltoids split into a hundred seething, muscle fiber bursting heads as she lifted the car off of her shoulders. Her hamstrings defined themselves and the sleek muscles of her lower back showed through the tatters of her once nice blouse as she leaned over to set the busted up car onto the road. Once the tires were back on the road, Jan pulled the halves of the Ford apart and started carefully extracting the people inside. She carefully laid then near the ditch near Don before jogging over towards the rest of the group.

"There's one more inside this Suburban", Sara told Jan. "The frame's so bent that I can't get him out through the window."

"Okay", Jan said quickly and rushed to the side of the big suv. She could have simply punched through the glass, gripped the door and yanked it off of its hinges, but she had to be careful. The person inside looked pretty injured. Instead Jan put one hand on the vehicle's B pillar and one hand on the C pillar. Armen got a closer look at Jan's superhuman muscles when forced the steel to bend to her will. Don had gotten to see this powerful amazon tear a car in half, but that wasn't her goal this time. Jan carefully applied tons of force through her surging muscles. A muffled pop signaled Jan's progress. The chassis moaned as Jan straightened her long arms. Throbbing veins and arteries started crisscrossing her already sliced up shoulders and triceps, adding even more depth to her hard cut muscle shapes. The entire 3 ton vehicle shook just before there were two loud POPS. Jan pulled her arms off of the misshapen pillars and simply pulled the door off the side of the vehicle and tossed it to the ground. She'd snapped the hinges and locking bolt with just the power of her arms. Armen had never seen anything like it. Then Sara carefully lifted the wounded passenger from the vehicle and laid him down on the road shoulder.

"That's the last of them", Sara declared with some satisfaction.

"Are you sure?", Armen asked and Alisha chuckled.

"Yeah. She's sure."

Brian stood next to Sara's Hummer laughing hysterically as the scene played out beneath him. He couldn't believe that roommate and friend was another gifted person. Sometimes he felt like the only normal person in the world since, as it was turning out, all of his college friends had powers. He'd have to have a long talk with Armen when they had time. Just then he heard the faintest hint of sirens in the distance. All kinds of emergency personnel would be on the scene soon and he was pretty sure his friends didn't want to be seen. Alisha could make an illusion, but he had another idea. He hopped into the driver's seat and dropped the H3 into gear.

"Ok, umm, Alisha you're probably going to have to hide us", Jan said as her mind switched from rescue mode to save she and her friends a lot of grief mode.

"Hide us how?", Armen wondered, but no one got a chance to answer him because they all turned towards the embankment when a pair of headlights bobbed up and down as they got closer. Everyone except Sara smiled broadly when they saw her Hummer coming down the embankment onto the road.

"You guys need a lift?", a grinning Brian asked after pulling up beside them. Everybody piled into Sara's H3 and Brian drove straight for the grassy median. The Hummer negotiated the steep grade and soft ground, chewing its way up the opposite slope and onto the other roadway. Brian smashed it and had the Hummer up to highway speeds by the time the cops and fire engines arrived on the accident scene.

The inside of the Hummer was one big celebration like a team after winning a championship. Jan reached across the seat and gave Brian a shake. "Quick thinking on picking us up", she told him.

"I do what I can when I can", he replied with a big smile.

The group spilled into the apartment just as excited as they'd been during the trip there. Sara put her hands around Armen's head and pulled him down to her lips, kissing him as they worked their way through the door. "You were so amazing", she exclaimed after pulling away but almost instantly kissing him again. "You're one of us", she blurted not letting go of him the entire time.

"We should have guessed that he was gifted", Alisha began with a shrug. "I mean who else puts up with us?"

"Eh hem!", Brian loudly cleared his throat. Jan laughed and playfully patted him on the back. "Honestly though, I can't believe my bro here never dropped a hint that he's freaking Pyro and he's dating Jean freaking Grey!" Brian gave Armen a high five.

"No Pyro, I can start my own flames", Armen said quickly and was about to continue until Sara asked, "Who's Jean Grey?"

"You're kidding!?!", Brian and Armen asked at the same time. When the shock left both of their faces they separately prepared to explain 40 years of comic book history to Sara, but Alisha spoke up instead.

"The character Famke Janssen played in the X-men movie. The character's one of the original members of the team", Alisha went on to explain.

"Ohhh", Sara said, remembering the actress' face, but not much else.

Brian and Armen shared another look as they turned to Alisha. "You know about the X-men?", Brian asked for the both of them.

Alisha chuckled at their astonishment. "Check the movie credits, guys. Golden Eagle Productions is one of my father's companies. He has me read all the 'young people' scripts before he jumps in. Anyway Sara, Jean Grey is a fictional telepath and a telekinetic."

"A powerful telekinetic", Armen clarified and Sara's eyes narrowed.

"I'm a powerful telekinetic", she boasted while looking up into Armen's eyes. He smiled down at her and opened his mouth to reply, but cut himself off when he heard the front door knob turn. Sara's face brightened and she rushed over. "Shaunie!", she yelled. "Shaunie! Armen's gifted! He can control FIRE!", she exclaimed while pulling LaShaunta towards the group in the living room.

LaShaunta looked to Armen then back to Sara. "He controls the heat itself, not just the fire", LaShaunta calmly replied.

Sara's eyes opened wider. "Wait!?! You know Armen's gifted!?!"

"Of course. I would have just come and told you, but he was sooo desperate for me to keep quiet. I guess you finally manned up. Good job Armen", she said and gave him a sarcastic thumbs up.

Armen laughed. "I had to do a small demonstration. There was a bad accident on the highway and there was an explosion that I had to snuff out."

"Good for you Armen", she said seriously this time. "You know the both of you put me in a seriously impossible position, but now it's over and Armen doesn't have to act weird every time I come around. That was getting really old."

"So that's why he acted that way when Shaunie came around", Jan said to Alisha.

"Yeah", Alisha began then shrugged. "We thought it was because you two used to date or something."

LaShaunta chuckled. "No, we've never dated. We're just friends."

"Much to his dismay", Brian interjected and Jan slapped him on the shoulder.

This was all so much for Sara to take in. She'd had a sinking suspicion that Armen and LaShaunta might have dated in the past and she'd had to keep herself from entering each of their minds to find out the truth. "So how long have known Armen was gifted?", she asked LaShaunta.

"Since we first met."

Armen shook his head. "She's been hinting so hard that I could tell you my secret, but I can be dense apparently."

"Apparently", LaShaunta said and laughed.

Sara threw her arms around her boyfriend and pulled him tightly against her body. "I should have told you too. I've been dense too, but none of that matters now!"

"So", Brian said a couple of minutes later, "you said that you can make your own flames. I saw you suck flames up, but not make any."

"Make those dragon things that you used to do", LaShaunta said quickly and Armen grinned.

A ball of red flame about the size of a softball appeared in front of Armen's face, just floating there until began to elongate and grow wings. A long snake-like face appeared on one end and a tail on the other before it started flying from person to person, first to Sara and then to LaShaunta. The flames looked like they should have been in a fireplace, but no one felt heat coming from them at all. When the dragon got to Brian it spit flames in his face making him nearly stumble over the ottoman, but still there was no heat.

"That is so cool", Sara said, following the animated flames.

"Then you'll love this", Armen told her and used his hands to raise hers up to chest level where another ball of fire grew just above her palms. "Touch it. It won't burn." Sara poked her finger into the ball of flames and it was actually cool to the touch. The ball changed shape into a hoop and then into a pizza crust shaped disk as Sara manipulated it with her hands. Armen gave Alisha and Brian some fire to play with then he turned to Jan.

"She might not be as receptive", Alisha said as she turned Armen's ball of fire into a lei which she put around her neck.

"You're afraid of fire?", he asked with a frown. Armen wouldn't have thought that Jan Caufield would be scared of anything.

"I'm not more afraid of fire than anyone else", she explained. "I'm just not less afraid either."

Armen grinned compassionately then took Jan's hand and held it palm up. A tiny ball of tumultuous flames floated there. She let out a nervous giggle before closing her fingers around it. She felt the outward pressure from the flames, but no heat. Armen let Jan's hand go and she started manipulating the ball of flame, turning it into a sort of oblong bowl.

"I bet you wouldn't have let that other fire guy do this", Alisha said as she rolled her fire ball from one hand to the other. "The one from that op in DC."

"No I certainly wouldn't have", Jan stated emphatically while forming her flames into a box, complete with a lid. "I didn't want him around at all, which is understandable I think, since he was trying to kill me."

"What was his name again?", Sara asked and Jan rolled her eyes.

"Meshrob", she replied. "I'll never forget his name."

All the heatless flames in the room disappeared and Armen suddenly turned to Jan, gripping her arms tightly. He had the most intense look on his face as he growled, "You know Meshrob?!?" He stared directly into Jan's sapphire blue eyes, which was unsettling for her since people rarely did that.

"I didn't know him. We fought each other, and he lost", a squirming Jan replied while memories of the pain from her searing flesh jumped back into her mind.

"We were on a mission to arrest the leader of an international syndicate", Sara explained calmly trying to comfort her boyfriend and settle him down.

"Mission?!?", he shot. "What kind of mission and for who?"

Alisha stepped forward then. "Look, Armen there's a lot we still haven't told you. Settle down. We'll explain."

"I just want to know what happened with you and Meshrob!"

"I… I umm. It was him or it was me. I had to kill him", Jan made herself say knowing how it had to sound to someone who didn't know about that part of her life, but it didn't seem to faze Armen.

"YOU killed him?!?", he exclaimed and frowned. "How!", he demanded.

"I hit him with a generator", Jan replied.

"A generator???", a confused Armen said back.

"It weighed several tons", Jan explained. "It was the backup power for a whole office building. It was the heaviest thing I'd ever lifted until that point. Why do you care so much about that Meshrob guy anyway?"

"Because he was my brother."

Jan's quizzical and concerned expression changed to one of panic. Her usual flawless complexion turned three shades of green in the instant before she broke away from Armen's grasp and sprinted to the kitchen. She slid on her knees along the floor and pulled the trashcan from its nook just in time for it to catch the first wave of vomit. Jan's body was wracked as she wretched into the can. Armen came into the room with the rest of her friends in tow. Jan pushed herself along the floor all the way to the sink at the far end of the room to get away from him. "I'm sorry!", she managed then began to wretch again. "I'm so sorry Armen. I didn't know!", she screamed, cried and threw up all at the same time. Sara and Alisha had seen Jan at other low moments, but for Brian, LaShaunta, and Armen this was the weakest and most defenseless they'd ever seen the woman who was nearly indestructible.

Armen rushed up to Jan's side, getting on a knee to wrap his arm around her shoulder. "There's nothing to be sorry about", he said and put his face close to hers, ignoring her current condition. "I hated my older brother. I can't even explain how much I hated him."

"But he was your brother and I killed him", Jan cried and began dry heave.

Armen's smile broadened. "Yes you did. I always knew I liked you Jan, but you were my hero before we'd even met." Jan sat there looking at the faces not knowing what at all to do. Armen accepted a towel from Sara and gave it to Jan who wiped her face. When Jan's eyes fell on Armen she stood up and quickly left the kitchen without a word. The emotions covered everybody in a pall, except for Armen who was very near giddy remembering how he'd felt when he'd found out that his brother was dead. His only regret was that Jan felt so bad for ending Meshrob's miserable life. He'd fix that though.

While everyone was standing in the kitchen doorway, Armen went towards the trashcan. "I'll clean this up since it was my fault it happened", he said but LaShaunta stepped in front of him.

"Nah, it'll be easier if I take it." LaShaunta and the whole trashcan disappeared. A few minutes later she came back to the apartment with a brand new one. "I didn't want to clean it… did you?" Nobody said a word.

Two huge men strained to lift a solid stone ball to the top of the pedestal. Sweat rolled down their bull necks as muscles flexed with the power of forklifts, but still they seemed agonizingly far away from their goal. Cody glanced at the two struggling Farm Hands as they were called in the Pit, but made no move to help them. Instead he headed towards the only part of The Pit that was actually assembled. The spectator stands weren't ready. The gambling tables and windows hadn't yet been built, but the arena floor was prepared for combat. One of the side rings was already being tested by two would be fighters who thought they were ready to join the best fighters in the world.

The one who called himself Plumber Rick had Jasmine up against the wall, pressing a thick forearm to her throat while she fought off his attempts to grab her with his other hand. The well muscled Jasmine turned her head and managed to get her hand against Rick's bare chest. She curled her fingers and she clawed at his stomach. Rick choked off a yell and a frustrated groan as Jasmine slipped out reach. She headed towards the middle of the arena floor to clear her head as Rick came towards her.

Rick wore nothing but tight fighter shorts over his burly body while Jasmine was dressed in black lycra pants, a purple sports bra with an attached see through blouse, and a black mask that matched her black shoes. She had the body of a strength and physical fitness athlete with sleek but dense muscles from top to bottom. She didn't have the sculpted muscles of the weaker show girls as she called them. Her body had a nice feminine taper not because her waist was small but because her shoulders were so broad and powerful. She had densely muscled arms that were used to lifting uneven loads like full barrels, kegs, or men. Her hips and thighs were thick and powerful, somewhat blocky rather than sweeping. Her thighs showed off every hard earned rope of definition. She bent her legs, her thighs getting wider and harder as she tensed her legs, storing power. Her already bulbous calves flexed larger too. She looked like a bomb ready to explode even when she was standing still. Then she launched at Rick with fury and strength. Her feline quickness almost overwhelmed him and her nimble attacks made him look like an oaf in defense. She crashed two solid blows against Rick's jaw, sending him staggering. She smiled beneath the mask and pressed her attack.

Cody stood next to his assistant Ali and folded his arms. "Are either of them worth a damn?", he asked and Ali shrugged.

"Both of them look like shit so far."

Jasmine must have heard the exchange because she stepped up her attacks big time. She dug down deep finding extra power to slam some of her best blows into Rick's somewhat softer middle. Then she reached down and wrapped both her arms around one of Rick's legs. Her muscles flexed with surprising sharpness as his feet came off of the sand covered floor. The shock showed on his face as this woman sent higher into the air. Her body had a bit more power to spare as she plowed him into the ground head first. Jasmine stole a glance at Cody before pouncing on Rick and landed three quick punches against his strong jaw. Just when Cody and Ali thought she might actually have something brewing, Rick grabbed either side of Jasmine's face and smashed it against this forehead. Blood squirted out like he'd crushed a tomato. Jasmine was obviously dazed, and Rick to the opportunity to do more damage. He wrenched her head to the side putting so much pressure on her neck that Jasmine yelped. He drew back and blasted a solid punch to the center of her masked face. For good measure Rick threw an even harder punch to Jasmine's abs. Her midsection might have looked harder and more impressive than his, but his fist burrowed right through her six pack, doubling Jasmine over even as she sat on his chest.

He threw her to the side and rolled to his feet. She clawed herself forward to get some distance, but didn't get very far. Rick reached down and lifted a bleeding Jasmine up by the straps of her sports bra. His thick arm thickened a bit more as he raised Jasmine all the way over his head then he jumped. With an attention getting scream he drove Jasmine to the ground, powering her down with all the strength he had. The thud shook the floor and all the air leaving Jasmine's lungs pushed sand across the arena floor. Tears of pain dripped from Jasmine's eyes, but she didn't give in even as he blasted punch after punch into her head and body despite her attempts to block him. He thought she was almost knocked out, but she spun to the side just before another punch landed. Rick screamed again as his fist slammed into the floor. Rick jumped on Jasmine before she could get up. He put his body across hers and she put her hands on his torso to attempt to press him off, but he moved his body north and south. Jasmine tried to knee Rick in the face, but he slipped his shoulder beneath her knee as she came up for a knee and she attempted to swing her leg back and use the heel of her foot to kick him in the face. Rick caught her ankle and held it firmly.

Jasmine's quad surged upward, thickening her legs in every direction as she attempted to straighten her leg, but Rick's bicep flexed to match her strength. There was a stalemate at first but then his arm began to move backwards along with her lower leg. Jasmine bore down. Her black pants stretched more as the muscles beneath flexed beyond anything before, but Rick's arm just kept curling forcing her leg to bend more and more over the fulcrum of his shoulder. His manly bicep reached its full flex and pump almost at the same time as Jasmine's first scream. Those shrieks were music to Plumber Rick's ears. He bit his lip and bore down.

Cody and Ali stood on stoically and watched as Jasmine's screams reached a new level. She pounded her fists against Rick's legs, but he didn't feel the pain. He was too interested in listening to Jasmine's ligaments stretch and began to tear. Jasmine screamed her surrender and tapped her hands against Rick's legs, but he didn't let up. Both Rick and Jasmine looked over to Cody and Ali, who just crossed their arms. Rick got an evil grin on his face as he gripped his own wrist with his off hand and pulled Jasmine's leg back with all of his might. Her knee joint exploded and her screams went up three octaves. Rick jumped to his feet and threw his hands into the air, but no referee came down to make his win official because there was no referee. He ran around the ring like he'd just beaten a champion rather than some no named girl, but Cody and Ali were impressed nonetheless.

"He finished pretty well", Ali said with another shrug.

"Not bad for a rookie", Cody grudgingly agreed. "Get him a fight once we finally get this place up and running."

"I'll make it happen", Ali replied before jumping down into the ring to tend to Jasmine who had managed to roll over onto her stomach, but she couldn't even bend her leg to reach down and cradle it. "Stop acting like a fucking baby!", he screamed to the wannabe fighter then pointed to one of the workers standing above the Pit. "Get Sluice down here. Wake him up if you have to." The worker put down his broom and rushed to do Ali's bidding.

Cody walked out the way he'd come in and saw that the farm hands had finally gotten the first globe in place, although they had the runes facing the wrong way. Cody thought about calling those useless guys back over.  Instead he reached up and spun the globe by himself. He'd learned from his predecessor that at the end of the day everything that happened in the Pit was his responsibility, no matter who'd he delegated the task to. Cody took one last look at the globe and decided to supervise the installation of the other four. He was about to head to the next stand when he heard someone walking up towards him.

"You look well Don, considering I heard you were in a wreck a couple of hours ago."

"It wasn't as bad as it could have been", Don, the delivery truck driver told Cody. "I got speared with a shard of glass."

"Through the head, I was told."

"There's nothing much up here anyway", he said with a smile and tapped his forehead. "My truck's totaled and my asshole day job boss wants to try and pin that damn wreck on me, but some woman in a Honda had a stroke or some shit."

"You want me to look into your day job situation for you?", Cody asked, already choosing who he'd send to talk to this boss, but Don shook his head.

"If I get fired, so be it. I didn't like driving those welding tanks around anyway. I don't mind busting heads, but some kids could have got killed tonight. Let some other asshole deal with that drama, but that's not what I came here for." He paused and grimaced a little when he took a step. Don regenerated quickly, especially from life threatening wounds, but he wasn't fully healed up yet.

"While I was healing from my head wound", he began, "these kids, three young women at first, probably 18 to 22 years old came up to save the people in the wrecked cars. All of them were hot as hell, but the one who saved me was the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen."

Cody chuckled. "Good thing our former Queen isn't here to hear you say that."

Don put his hand over his heart as he said, "She'll always be my only Queen, but this girl was just flat out gorgeous my man, but speaking of Alex, the girl who saved me is strong too. I saw Alex bend steel like nothing and this girl could do the same thing. She bent steel like it was a sheet of paper and she picked up my loaded delivery truck like it was a case of bottle water, no easier than that. She picked up a fucking Ford like it was a case of bottled water because it was bulky, my truck was just something in her way. And she tore a fuckin car in half… I mean just pulled it apart by spreading her arms out like this." Don put his hands near his chest with his elbows out and then pulled his arms quickly in opposite directions. "Muscles flexed all over. It was beautiful. Her back and shoulders were so fuckin hard that I'm getting hard thinking about it!" Cody laughed. "Oh, and did I mention that this beauty's got to be north of six feet tall?"

"You've already got my attention, Don. Keep talking. What about the others?"

"One was a Vis… the blonde one. She was cute as hell, nice tight body on her too. Then there was a brunette with a fantastic rack and nice legs, pretty too, but I don't know what she could do. She was just with the others maybe. I wonder if they're a group of models or something. A minute or two later just before the explosion, this lanky guy runs down the hill. He's the blonde one's boyfriend I think, but anyway the tanks in my truck exploded. I mean really exploded, like send a truck axle to the next county exploded, but that guy sucked the explosion into his fuckin hand!"

"No shit!"

"I kid you not. He stopped the explosion and sucked every single flame into his hand. It was the damndest thing. He might be a Toss or he might be a Pass. There's no way to know from what I saw."

Cody got a look of frustration on his face as he told Don, "Ole Raz is slacking on his duties. He's the reason we came to this area in the first place."

The former delivery driver chuckled. "Do you want me to talk to him?"

Cody shook his head. "No. He's got enough to think about. He got suspended from his job and...", Cody paused and motioned to the side of the room, "he's in debt to Rex." Don turned and have a little huff. Rex was not the guy anybody wanted to be indebted to. "So, did you manage to overhear any names?", Cody asked.

"I wish I had but no. I tell you this though… if I see that tall girl again, I'll recognize her. Her face is going to be showing up in my dreams from here on."

Cody stepped closer to Don and asked him, "Do you think she'll fight?"

Don grinned. "Anybody'll fight if you give them the right motivation."

Jan had gone into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth but had ended up taking a shower as well. For whatever reason Jan's mind wouldn't accept that she'd killed Armen's brother and that he was okay with it. He was more than okay with it. He'd thanked her. Jan had killed lots of people and she knew it was only a matter of time before at least one of those deaths came back to haunt her. She'd face this head on though. She wouldn't hide out. She sheepishly walked into the living room, freshly scrubbed in a sleeveless t-shirt and pajama bottoms. For people who saw Jan pretty much every day, there were times when even they were struck by her almost otherworldly beauty.

"How do you feel?", Armen asked. He would have stood up but Sara was basically sitting in his lap with her head lying against his chest.

"Weird", Jan replied.

"I know it doesn't make sense right now, but Meshrob was the most evil person I've even heard of. I looked over my shoulder for ten years worried he might show up again."

"He was Armen's personal bogie man", a subdued LaShaunta told Jan. "For years after we met, Armen would break into sweats if anybody even mentioned his name."

Armen nodded and smiled to Jan. "I couldn't even go to church on the feast of St. Mesrop with my foster family. I had to skip it, and he's the patron saint of Armenia." The smile dropped and he looked at the floor before glancing back up to Jan's face. "Sara wanted to know what happened between me and Meshrob in the first place. I might as well tell everybody at the same time so I don't have to say it twice. Well Shaunie already knows what happened."

"I'm just listening to this again out of solidarity", LaShaunta stated before taking a long drink of ice water. "Have a seat Jan. By the time Armen's done, you'll wish you'd killed Meshrob twice." Jan crossed her legs beneath her as she took a seat on the new loveseat and looked over to Armen who sighed then started.

"So I'm the youngest of five. Maria was the oldest. Meshrob was the oldest boy, and then Anna and Ara and then me. Fire's a big deal in Armenia going back to the folklore days and everybody knew my family was attached to the legends in some way, but it was just legends until Meshrob started manifesting his powers when he was a little kid. He set stuff on fire and our parents tried to deal with it and keep it secret from the government at the same time. You've got to remember that we were still living in the Soviet Union in those days. Nothing seemed to work with Meshrob. I was just a little kid, but I remember when he burned a chicken alive and then a goat. My parents weren't quite sure what to do, and then like an answered prayer this guy named Romano Scarlforo swoops in. It was odd for a Westerner like Scarlforo to visit Armenia back in those days, but he said he cut through the redtape to meet Meshrob. He said he had a special school for gifted children in Italy and if our parents agreed, he'd enroll Meshrob and help him deal with his powers. Besides the fact that as far as my parents were concerned Italy might as well have been next door to Heaven, this guy was promising to help Meshrob. I cried when he left, but I hoped that school would help him.

"He wrote letters home and visited a couple of times a year after the Soviet Union fell and movement back and forth got easier. He seemed normal and happy. He'd tease our sisters and play football with me during his summer visit and we'd skate on the lake up in the mountains during his winter visits. Scarlforo came in person once a year to give a progress report to our parents. They weren't always glowing reports on Meshrob's behavior, but there was always progress.

"Everything changed when I started showing signs of being gifted. Scarlforo showed up Meshrob to convince my parents to send me to his special school, but they hesitated. They told Scarlforo that I might be very weakly gifted and than they'd wait and see what happened. Well, it was clear that I wasn't going to be weak and Scarlforo became more insistent over the next couple of years, and we all saw the change in Meshrob. He didn't play with me or tease our sisters anymore on his visits. He just stood behind Scarlforo stoically. Anyway, on Scarlforo's last visit to our home, I'd had enough of staying silent.

"I might have only been a kid, but I wasn't stupid and I wasn't Meshrob either! I stood in front of Scarlforo and told him him that I wasn't going anywhere. I told him that I didn't burn things just to destroy them and I didn't hurt harmless animals like Meshrob. And I told him that I never would. I told him that I wasn't sick like my older brother and I didn't need his help. The only thing I needed was my family."

Armen paused while he smiled, remembering the sun shining in through the windows illuminating Scarlforo's angered face. He tried to recover and put on a smile, but everyone had seen his true nature in that moment. "Ara and Anna said that they didn't want me to go, and our parents agreed. Scarlforo convinced my parents to send me outside while they continued the discussion, and he sent Meshrob outside to try and change my mind. It didn't work. We got into an argument and he got so mad that he set my shirt on fire."

Everyone sitting near Armen gasped, but he just chuckled. "I put out the flames real fast. That just made him mad enough to shoot flames at me. He wanted to show me how much better he'd gotten at Scarlforo's special school, but I just took his heat away. He couldn't even make tiny flames because I dissipated his heat before he gathered enough. When he realized what was happening I told him that I was already stronger than him, and good at using my gift. I told him that I wasn't crazy like he was. Looking back on it, that probably wasn't the right thing to say, but it wouldn't have mattered. Meshrob belonged to Scarlforo by then. So… they left and everybody worried if they'd ever see Meshrob again because of what had happened. I was sad too. Meshrob was my big brother and I was supposed to look up to him, but I still wasn't willing to go off with him.

"About a week later Mom started getting sick. It started with a cough and then fatigue. We didn't have a doctor in our town since after the fall of the Soviet Union the government didn't station doctors and the two we used to have moved to Yerevan to make more money. Mom was going to try and fight her way through it, but then Dad started getting sick too. When that happened Mom and Dad sent the kids to our aunt and uncle's place in Baghanis a few towns over. We had no idea that Scarlforo was paying the grocer down the street to poison the coffee he sold us. Since Mom and Dad were the only two who drank the coffee, they were the only ones who got sick, and Meshrob knew they'd send us to Baghanis.

"I found out later that Scarlforo didn't want to come after me in my hometown because there was still an operational Russian military base not 2km from our house, but Baghanis was more than 40km from the closest military base. Scarlforo and his men waited a day to attack us there. We heard an explosion and then some gunfire. There'd been some fights between Armenia and Azerbaijan, so nobody panicked. But these weren't some local border fights between families. Scarlforo had a group of well trained soldiers executing a plan that Meshrob had helped put together. He knew how the people in the town would react to a serious attack. The men would grab their guns and defend their homes while the old people, women, and children would get to their hiding places. My aunt and uncle's usual hiding place was near the base of the mountain behind their house, but for whatever reason we hadn't gone there when the battle started. Uncle had dug a wine cellar that he'd never finished and we huddled in there. Meshrob went straight for the normal hiding spot, but looked like a fool to all of Scarlforo's people when we weren't there. They tore the house up trying to find us and eventually Scarlforo's men had to search the entire town. When they couldn't find us, Meshrob pointed out where the hiding places were.

"They pulled people from beneath their porches or the little hollows beneath the sheds and barns. Some of those hiding places had been used for centuries, shielding their ancestors from Russians, Turks, Persians, and even Mongols, but he made them useless. Almost everyone recognized Meshrob and begged him to spare them. Either he'd kill them or one of the others would. Then Meshrob would yell out to me and say that all this blood was on my hands. All I had to do was come out. I almost did.

"But Maria thought she could reason with him so she pulled past our uncle and ran out to confront him face to face. Maria and Meshrob had always been close growing up, but he wasn't part of our family anymore. He belonged to Scarlforo. She just didn't realize it like the rest of us did.

"When Scarlforo grabbed Maria, Meshrob didn't lift a finger to help her. When she cried and begged for her life, Meshrob didn't do anything. He didn't even flinch when Scarlforo shot her in the head. Anna and Ara ran out of the hole to try and save Maria, but they got there too late. Scarlforo's men shot at them, splitting them up. Meshrob ran after Anna. The streets in Baghanis are really confusing, but he knew them as well Anna did so she couldn't get away from him. He had her cornered and the raised his hands up. I wanted to do something, but I was too far away. Our aunt put her hand over my mouth when I screamed, but his flames bent around her.

"I was as shocked as everybody else when Meshrob's flames diverted around Anna. I moved over to look further down the street and I saw Ara holding off his flames. She must have known about her gift for a while or she wouldn't have been able to stand up to Meshrob, because she held him off even when he added more power. They were twice as big as normal, but Ara protected Anna. Scarlforo came over to shoot her, but Ara bent Meshrob's flames towards his new father." Armen chuckled, thinking back. "Meshrob stopped trying to kill Anna when he almost killed Scarlforo instead. When he went to help his Scarlforo, Anna and Ara ran away. I wish they'd run back to me." A tear rolled down Armen's cheek. "Me and Ara could have held them off for a long time, but I guess they didn't want them to find me. They ran the complete opposite direction. That bastard Scarlforo sicked some big blond guy on them... a telekinetic.

"He threw all kinda stuff at them, tearing chunks off of the walls, even shrubs out of the ground. They looked like they were running through a tornado. They hid behind a low wall hoping he couldn't find them, but he saw them the entire time. H smiled when he picked up an old Lada and hovered it high over them before dropping it." Armen's hands balled into fists as the memories flowed inside his head before he put them to words.

"Ara saw it at the last minute", he said then chuckled. "She would have been so strong if she'd lived. Maybe stronger than I am now because she saw that car at the last moment and still had time to throw hands up and shoot a blast of heat so strong that she melted a hole through that Lada in the time it took for the car to fall. When it hit the ground it fell around Anna and Ara. Didn't even touch them! The blond guy looked so damned surprised. I wish Ara had shot a blast towards him, but instead she and Anna ran." More tears flowed as Armen continued.

"Meshrob and that blond guy teamed up after that. I wish I knew that asshole's name too, but I never found out", he said and clenched his fists as the anger over took him.

"His name was Oleg Moller", a somber Sara informed him then gave his hand a squeeze.

"Was?", Armen asked. "So he's dead too. This day gets better and better. Anyway, I never saw Anna or Ara die. I  heard Anna scream when that telekinetic… Moller pulled a wall down on top of her. It only hit her from the knees down so she was trapped. I was told that Meshrob walked up close and blasted her with everything he had. Anna might not have been gifted, but I guess the old legends about my family are true. Fire doesn't kill us easily. It took Meshrob a long time to kill Anna. She kept screaming and screaming until...

"Uncle knew he couldn't help Anna, so he ran after Ara. He died trying to make a distraction.  It was just me and my aunt in the hole. She carried me out of the half finished cellar and put me down the well in the garden. After she lowered me down, she cut the rope and dropped the end down there with me. That's when I knew she had no intentions of trying to save herself. She grabbed a gun from a dead neighbor and ran to the middle of the fight. I always like to think she got at least one of the bastards before the killed her, but I'll never know. I couldn't see anything from the well.

"Most of the townspeople escaped while Scarlforo was hunting for me, but they killed at least thirty people and wounded about fifty more before they found me in the garden well. They knew I wasn't going to come out on my own, not after what they'd just done. They tried to fish me out with a rope and a hook and a chain and a hook, but I burned the rope and melted the chain before they got get it attached to me. That guy Moller used his gift to lift me up, but I started throwing bits of super hot chain, metal, and rock from the well lining at them to keep them back, so he dropped me. After that, they decided to send Meshrob down because it was harder for me to hurt him, but he knew that he couldn't fight me either. I made it as hot as I could, hot enough to burn off his fire resistant suit. Hot enough to just about melt the cable lowering him down. Hot enough for him to start to scream. He was about ten feet above me when he yelled up for them to pull him back up. He was so mad he started burning the entire town. He even burned down the Church of St. Thaddeus and it had been there more than a thousand years.

"About an hour later, they got construction equipment and started digging from the side. There wasn't much I could do about that. I tried to get myself together to fight them, but the time I managed to damage the damn bulldozer, Meshrob or that blond guy would have me. I was so scared by this point that I didn't know what to do.

"Right then the Broker showed up with his army. I couldn't see the battle, but I heard it and felt it through the ground. It didn't last long. Scarlforo's army was good, but they were spread out and tired from battle while the Broker's army was elite and fresh. They killed more than half of Scarlforo's men, but he got away with Meshrob and that Moller guy. When the town, or what was left of it, was secured, the Broker and Morgen tried to get me to come out, but I wouldn't. It took a long time for them to convince me to allow them to lift me out. Really I don't know if I chose to allow them to bring me out of the well or if Morgen compelled me. I've never asked, but either way I wish I had come straight out because Meshrob hadn't gone straight back to Italy with Scarlforo. He'd taken a few of Scarlforo's soldiers with him to our hometown." Armen paused and wiped his eyes before looking over to LaShaunta who motioned for him to continue.

"Mr. Hawkins, he's one of the best fighters I've ever seen and he's one of the Broker's most trusted guys. He thought it wasn't over. He took some of the guys and rushed towards my home. Mr. Hawkins got there in time to save the town and my neighbors, but not in time to save my Mom and Dad. Mr. Hawkins told me that he got there just as my mother was shot. Meshrob wanted to mutilate the bodies, to burn them to dust, but he didn't get to. Mr. Hawkins killed the five men Meshrob had with him and nearly killed Meshrob himself, but that bastard was too mean to die. Mr. Hawkins could have chased Meshrob down and ended it, but he chose to secure the town. I've never blamed him for it. There were thousands of people in danger. Everybody I loved was already dead.

"Anyway, I heard that my family had beautiful funerals. I wasn't able to go because the Broker sent me to America. I was really messed up for a really long time, but whenever I felt like I was losing my mind I thought about what I told Meshrob behind our old house. I'm not going to be crazy like him, and so far so good." Armen tried to smile again, but it faltered. He looked around the room instead. His gaze finally settling on Jan.

Every cheek in the room had tear tracks except for Jan's, which was unusual since she was usually the first of them to cry. She was too mad to cry. She wished she could bring Meshrob back to life and kill him again, and she wished that Caeda had taken her time killing Scarlforo, but knew that she hadn't had the opportunity. Jan liked Armen and thought of him as a good friend, and now she'd just found out that the same man who had made her adoptive brother an orphan had also made him one. Jan had never in her life felt so satisfied at taking a life with the possible exception of Milton Longbridge.

"So December before last, Shaunie and the Broker show up in Kansas City and tell me Meshrob was dead and that it was confirmed. Although after finding out how he died, the confirmation must have been a little grisly. Anyway I pretty much begged the Broker to tell me who had killed Meshrob. He said he couldn't even after I told him that all I wanted to do was look that person in the eye and thank them from the bottom of my heart." Armen extended his hand towards Jan who took it. "Thank you for ending the last bit of my ten year nightmare", he told her. Big tears finally welled in Jan's sapphire blue eyes even as she grinned slightly.

"You're welcome."

It was a beautiful morning in Pakistan, but the principle officers of a private security firm called Integrity International were huddled in an office with the blinds and curtains pulled, waiting in silence, like before a funeral. The last few hours had been the worst in many of their lives. The loss of one of their stash houses had been bad enough, but then they'd found out that all the information stored at their server farm in Kazakhstan had been compromised. Integrity International had lost access to tens of millions of dollars that funded their off the book, secret operations all over the region. While they had US government contracts for convoy protection and surveillance operations in Afghanistan, Integrity International also smuggled guns and fighters into Afghanistan while helping ship drugs and trained terrorists out. Bruce Wallach and the company he'd founded were making tons of money through the front door and the back door as they liked to say. Worse still, Abay Isayev was dead. That man had been a godsend to their relatively small backdoor operation a few years earlier. Back then Bruce and his men had been making extra spending money helping the Taliban and others. After Isayev though they'd started to make so much money that they had to find places to stash it. He'd helped with that too. He'd invested their ill gotten profits all over the globe. The returns were tremendous, but just that fast, all of that was gone.

All the men in the room turned to the door when the knob started to turn. The CFO George Holman walked in looking as somber as the others. "How bad is it?", Bruce asked for the group.

"As bad as we feared. Just about every dime we've invested from our backdoor operations is gone. Everything ran through Isayev. We don't know how much Abdul and his people were able to destroy, but we have to assume the worst case scenario and that they have everything. Whatever chance we had to get out money back died with Isayev.

"I said we shouldn't have put all of our eggs in one damned basket!", Louis Woodruff, head of the legal department grumbled.

"It's too late to cry about it now", Luke Scott said even though he'd just lost as much money as the others.

"On the bright side", George said to the somber faces. "Our operations are still up and running, and Isayev didn't have any operational intel, so he didn't know the who, what, or where, just the how much they got paid."

"That's something", Louis allowed.

"But", George said with a sharp inhale. "We don't have any major paying gigs in the pipeline for at least a month. We pushed all that stuff back until our operation with your Georgian friend is concluded."

"Any chance we could speed that up?", Luke asked. "That payout would put us right back in the game."

"No", Bruce said and shook his head. "Damteni said the schedule is ironclad. Plus with all the other groups we'd partnered with, it would be a logistical nightmare to try and move the date, forward or back."

"We still have to finance the operations we currently have going", Louis reminded everyone.

Bruce looked to George. "Is there any way in hell you can move some money from our front door accounts to cover our backdoor accounts? Please say yes."

"I can do it", George said without any hesitation. "I'll have to figure out a way to move a few million dollars from our legit accounts without drawing suspicion, but it can be done. Taking over for Isayev is a full time job though, Bruce. I can't run the front door and the backdoor accounts. I'm good, but I'm not Superman."

"Get on it immediately", Bruce ordered. George nodded then left the room to head back to his office. He had to start getting the word to out to all the terrorist groups, smuggling rings, and drug cartels they did business with to switch the accounts they were using. He was pretty sure the CIA and British Intel would have those accounts flagged before fast got ready or quick had a chance.

"Who's going to be our new CFO for the legit side?", Louis asked. "There's nobody on staff who can do it. They can crunch numbers, but there's more to it than that."

"Don't worry about that", Bruce said. I'll see what I can do. In the mean time we'll just have to make do. We've got some BIG paydays coming guys, but we might have some sleepless nights until then. Can you guys deal with that?" Both Louis and Luke nodded. The truth was that they had no choice but play the hand they'd been dealt.

"So how did you and LaShaunta meet?", Sara asked Armen after a while, mostly get her mind off of the story she'd just heard. "Since we both know she wasn't your campus guide. I can't even imagine her doing that."

"Not even with a gun to my head", LaShaunta replied with a sideways grin.

Armen's good memories were again mixed with bad ones as he thought back again. "A week or so after I'd gotten to America, the Broker came to check on me, and this time he brought a girl with him. I was a complete mess and didn't even notice her for like an hour. I remember the Broker trying to have a conversation, but his Armenian wasn't great and my Russian was even worse. I probably appreciated the effort, but I didn't have much to say. He left after a couple of hours, but a little while later LaShaunta came back by herself with two cups of gelato. I'd had ice cream before, but gelato's amazing. She didn't say a word to me the entire time. We just ate gelato in the backyard and when we were finished she gave me a hug and disappeared.

"She came back pretty regularly with more gelato or pastries from France or Denmark or whatever. Sometimes she'd take me places like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, or whatever. I remember thinking that there was no way Lake Michigan wasn't an ocean. We hardly spoke to each other during these trips though because my English still sucked. I didn't even know your name."

LaShaunta grinned. "I figured I'd wait until you'd learned enough English to ask me."

"So Sara, that's how LaShaunta and I met", he said with a chuckle, but his voice failed him when tried to speak again and he was once again forced to wipe away tears. "I was so scared and so alone back then. Dmitri tried his best to help me and Mr. Stern, and my foster parents too, but Shaunie figured out that I didn't need counselors or head shrinks. I needed a friend. I needed to know that there was somebody out there who cared about me with no ulterior motives."

LaShaunta willed herself not to cry although her eyes got misty as she finished the last of her water. "You know Armen, you were the perfect friend back when you barely talked", she quipped and Armen laughed while wiping tears of his own.

He felt like a massive weight had been lifted off of him. Not only had Sara found out about his powers, she'd also learned about the past that he'd been tight lipped about. "The only thing that could make this night any better", Armen began. "is if I met the guy who put Romano Scarlforo into the ground."

"I think I can arrange that", LaShaunta said to Armen's surprise. He'd be even more surprised when he found out that the assassin who'd killed Scarlforo wasn't a guy.

Director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service Billy Granger had gotten home at a decent hour for once. He was America's top spy and had a lot on his plate, but this night he'd poured himself a nice glass of scotch and had just cracked open a book about the Battle of Townton when the secure line on his phone rang. He leaned over and picked up the receiver. "What is it?", he asked curtly.

"Did you know about the raid?", Bruce accused more than asked.

"What raid?", a suddenly interested Billy replied.

Bruce let out a sigh and sat forward in his chair. He was alone now because while he trusted his company's department heads, he didn't want them to know he had a direct line to the number 2 man at the CIA. "Our side money guy's dead and so is Abdul."

"Abdul? Really? He's was a good guy", Billy said thinking back to the first time he'd met the young mujahedeen in the foothills of the Afghani mountains back during the war with the Soviets. It had been Billy who'd first introduced Bruce to Abdul in the first place.

"He sacrificed himself to keep them from getting their hands on Isayev."

"Hold on for a moment", Billy said and went to his office and activated the secure computer connected directly to the CIA. He looked through the recent missions and found the one Bruce was talking about. "I know about the joint operations center we have in Poland, but every mission they launch doesn't come across my desk. That group has a green light to operate from the CIA director himself, so even if I knew about the raid, Bruce, I couldn't have stopped it." Billy heard Bruce deflate a bit even though he hadn't said a word in over a minute. "Look, we've done some good business together, but I can't bird-dog for you and your people."

"I know that", Bruce admitted. He wasn't even sure what he expected from this phone call. What was done was done, and even if Bruce's company had long arms, those arms were long enough to punish the people who'd just cost him tens of millions of dollars personally. After a long period silence, he actually chuckled. "You wouldn't happen to know a financial guy would you?"

"To take over for your dirty money guy? People with those skills don't grow on trees."

"No", Bruce said. "My man George is going to do his best on that. It would take an outsider too long to be read in anyway. I'm talking about somebody who can take over George's job as our legit CFO."

"Oh, well, yeah I might", Billy said as Jack's face instantly popped into his mind. It was worrying that Bruce had made this call in the first place. They had a decent relationship, but they weren't so close that Billy was willing to ruin his reputation and spend the rest of his life in prison. On the other hand, Bruce was always good for a payday whenever Billy needed a bit of extra money. He just needed somebody to keep an eye on Bruce and his operations. Jack would be perfect. "Let me get in touch with him and see if he's available."

"Thanks Billy", Bruce said, the relief evident in his voice. "I always knew I could count on you."

"Don't count on me yet. The guy I have in mind might say no." Billy ended the call and stared up at the ceiling for a moment gathering his thoughts. After a minute or so he picked up the secure phone again and punched in a number code that he knew by heart. "Good evening General how are you?"

Jasmine hobbled to the hallway that led to the parking lot. She winced when she put some weight on her recently injured leg. Pain greeted the effort, but she didn't topple over. She continued towards the exit until a door opened in front of her and her opponent Rick came out wearing some well worn jeans and an old work shirt. He didn't even notice her back there until Jasmine picked up speed and grabbed him by the shoulder.

"You didn't have to go so far!", she yelled in Rick's face, the veins starting to show on her neck and on her forehead. Even after her time with Sluice, her athletic muscles were still fully pumped. She looked like she could have punched a hole in the wall, and she probably could have. Rick was surprised, but not concerned.

"Fight's over", he stated without malice and turned towards the exit again, but Jasmine sped up to get in front of him, momentarily forgetting the phantom pain in her leg.

She jabbed her finger in Rick's chest, stopping him mid stride. "You took pleasure in it didn't you!?!", she accused, her expression turning angrier the more she thought about it.

Rick's eyes narrowed just before his left hand shot up from his side, grasping Jasmine by the neck. His thick muscled arm flexed and lifted the smaller woman off of the ground. He spun to his right and slammed her hard into the wall, forcing some air from her lungs. "Those two guys watching the fight wanted more than a simple beating and I gave it to them", he growled with his lips only inches from Jasmine's face. "I'd have ripped your fucking leg off if that's what they wanted. I need this money. I've got five mouths to feed back home. This isn't some goddamned joke to me! If you can't handle it don't come back." With that Rick opened his fingers and walked away. Jasmine looked at him go, rubbing her neck and sucking in breaths the entire time.

Instead of her anger morphing to something else, the anger just receded to the back of her mind as she too left the building. She still hobbled a bit as she got into her Maserati, but the longer she drove the less and less she thought about her injury. By the time she got home, the pain was forgotten if not the injury itself. Jasmine's husband, Ryan, stood up from the couch as she came in through the garage.

"Hey, how did it go?", Ryan asked with a hopeful tone. Jasmine only glared and walked past him towards the basement door. He heard her slam the door and stomp down the stairs. He shut off of the television in the living room and headed to the second floor bedroom. The shaking wasn't as bad up there.

Downstairs Jasmine was seething mad by the time she stood in the midst of her training equipment. Weight lifting equipment was next to treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines, medicine balls, striking targets, and heavy bags. Jasmine let out a scream and slammed her fist into her heaviest heavy bag, knocking it almost sideways to the floor. She didn't have to play back the video from the cameras that automatically recorded her training sessions when she came to her home's lowest level. She knew the form of her punch had been perfect, and she knew that she'd punched harder than any heavyweight boxer could have. She'd trained her body to the very peak of her human ability and yet she'd gotten beaten by some working shlep. Jasmine waited for the heavy bag to swing towards her to punch again. This punch was even harder than her first one. She'd looked in the mirror as her core muscles had tensed up, a six pack of abs showing through her formfitting top. Her shoulders looked like exploding cannonballs with the muscle heads bulging like barely attached shrapnel. Her triceps were thick and dense from her years of hard work. Her bones had been hardened by those same years of hard work to the point that they absorbed the force of her blows almost on their own.

The bag flew back away from Jasmine. She'd easily reversed its 250 pound weight. This time when it swung down, Jasmine tested her once injured leg. She yelled at the top of her lungs and sliced a powerful kick to the center of the bag. The thick leather burst as her shin hit the bag, but that wasn't the only damage. The chain went instantly taunt from the impact, pulling against the bracket attached to two main supports in the home's floor. The force of Jasmine's kick buckled the bracket and snatched one of the long screws holding it in place right out of the joist. The heavy bag sagged to the floor. Jasmine thought about yanking it completely out. Instead she went to the very corner of the basement. The muscles in her jaw flexed and her eyes burned as she stared at the block of solid limestone set up there. Some small pieces had been knocked off of its edges, but most of the five foot tall and nearly two foot thick block was still intact.

This was how Jasmine had trained her bones to be harder than stone. She'd hit blocks like this one, punching and kicking them until she became stronger, but she'd hadn't been strong enough tonight. She didn't even bother taping her knuckles as she slammed a punch to the center of the block. She felt the shock of hitting the unyielding stone, but she punched it again and again. Sweat poured from her forehead and dotted her impressive muscular body as she punched and kicked the stone, sending vibrations through most of the house. Her yells and screams became more violent the more she punched and kicked. Usually her husband only felt the dull vibrations of his wife's training sessions in the basement, but now he heard them too. She was incensed and furious. He wouldn't go down there and try to comfort her. He'd let her work this out of her system. He turned up the volume and settled in to watch some Letterman.

Blood ran from Jasmine's hands as she slammed one heavy blow after another into the block of limestone. Her focus was laserlike and her body like a machine as she worked. The veins on her chest were nearly as thick as the ones on her striated biceps as they flexed like pistons. Finally the fatigue caught up with her and Jasmine collapsed into a pool of her own sweat. Tears of frustration mixed with her sweat as she rested on her knees.

The first guest had just left The Late Show when Jasmine strolled into the bedroom. Her hands were wrapped in towels, but she didn't head to the bathroom to wash off the blood. She walked over to the bed, leaned down and kissed her husband before wordlessly walking away. Ryan turned to look at his wife's broad muscular back, dense flexing ass, and powerful legs as she walked away. She'd just wanted him to know that she wasn't mad at him, just mad in general.  Maybe she'd want to talk about what had happened at the fight tonight, but more than likely she wouldn't. Sports weren't Ryan's cup of tea anyway, and combat sports were about as far outside of his expertise as could be. He loved his wife though, despite her choice of hobby. All of this fighting stuff was only important to Ryan because it was important to Jasmine.

Jan didn't explain on the phone why she wanted Thomas to get dressed and go to the living room, but he did it. Thomas was sitting on the sofa when LaShaunta appeared. "I don't know if I'll ever get used to that", he said as he stood up to take her hand.

"I'll bring him back soon", LaShaunta shouted up to Jack and Carol. "Okay!", Carol shouted back and then they were gone.

Thomas found himself in Atlanta. As jarring as it was traveling with her, being able to see Jan anytime LaShaunta was willing to bring him was nice… and it was cool to see Sara and Alisha too. "So what's up?", he asked after looking around at the emotionally drained faces looking back at him. When he spun around to see the rest of the room he noticed Amaris and Sara's boyfriend Armen talking with each other. Just then Jan came over and put her hand on Thomas' shoulder.

"I just found out tonight that Armen's family was killed by Romano Scarlforo when he was a kid. They were killed because Scarlforo wanted Armen's power. Armen really wanted to meet who killed Scarlforo, and I thought you and Armen might want to… I don't know. Talk."

Tears welled in Thomas' big brown eyes as he slowly walked towards Amaris and Armen. Then he saw something he thought he'd never see.  Tears fell from Amaris' eyes as she and Armen spoke to one another. Thomas dried his own eyes and had a thought to walk away, but didn't. Amaris turned towards Thomas as he got closer.  "The Broker told me what Scarlforo had done... to both of you."  She looked at  both of them then grinned slightly. "My parents were murdered too. He knew I wouldn't say no. I'd never met one of his victims in person back when he was my mark. If I had, I'd have made him suffer a bit more. Although the irony was pretty satisfying when I think back on it."

"Irony?"

Amaris laughed and Thomas chuckled too.  "Scarlforo's people sent a mercenary team to the prison to break him out, only he thought they were there to kill him. The mercs turned the prison into a warzone, and we fought side by side because he thought I was there to rescue him."

"You're kidding!", Armen exclaimed with a shameful amount of glee. He knew that he shouldn't take so much delight in the death of another person and yet that's how he felt.

"After a while I didn't even have to keep an eye on him. He followed me around the prison going from gunfight to gunfight. I even gave him a chance to get away at one point. Anyway, it came as a bit of a shock when he found out the truth."

"I wish I'd been there to see it", Armen said with a sigh then turned to Thomas. "I knew your parents had died, but Jan didn't tell me how... or why."

"Of course not", Thomas said with a sigh of his own. "Too many questions. My Dad, Mr. Caufield dad, told me to keep my answers short when people who don't know about powers and stuff as me what happened to my parents. He told me only a heartless piece of dirt would pry for answers." Armen laughed and then Thomas' face brightened a little.

"Yeah, us orphans have to stick together", Thomas said softly.

"And thank you Armaris", Armen said and held out his hand. Armaris shook it and then his face got real serious. "I'm not a soldier, and I never got trained like you and LaShaunta, but if I ever run across the people who took your family away from you… I'll kill them."

Amaris gave him a little grin. "Thank you, but just keep 'em alive and call Shaunie to pick me up. I've got a few questions I want answered before I slit their throats", the former assassin replied, and for the first time it really hit Armen that the woman standing in front of him really was a killer. Even when she explained how she'd killed Scarlforo his mind couldn't actually picture her doing it. She was beautiful for sure, but she was easy to be around and she seemed kind, even reserved in a way. He didn't get any dark vibes coming off of Amaris at all, but he wouldn't have guessed that Jan had killed people before, or his Sara either. He hadn't asked but he was pretty sure she was responsible for that telekinetic Moller's death. Although they might never talk about it.

"Well since I'm here", Thomas began then poked Armen in the side. "Let me see some fire!"

"Huh?", Armen asked.

"The fire. I just want to see it before I go."

Armen was about to politely decline given the mood of the room. Instead he turned his hands palms up and created two blazing spheres. This time he didn't take away the all heat.

"That is so COOL!", Thomas exclaimed, quickly tucking his sadness away. He jumped back and got into a combative stance before holding up his own hands. Small bolts of lightning shot down his arms, coalescing above his palms.

"Now that's cool", Armen exclaimed, realizing that he'd never asked exactly what Jan's little brother's power was. Suddenly twin bolts of lightning blasted towards his face. Armen frowned and jumped to the side just before impact. He was in total confusion as Thomas' glowing hands sent another blast right at him. Armen was about to call to Jan to see what was wrong when he realized that he was being an idiot. Between the look on Thomas' face and the fact that he'd felt no heat from two powerful looking blasts of electricity, Armen finally caught on.

He bathed his arms in flames as he brought them up. Two bright blasts of fire shot out of Armen's hands, meeting Thomas' white lightning. The two streams of power exploded into a shower of sparks. The air crackled as the two of them continued to feed their energy to the blast. Armaris grinned as she stepped out of the way to let these two have their fun. None of them had seen anything yet. Thomas and Armen were just getting started.

Sara wasn't quite so eager to see this little display. She got off of the sofa and came towards them. "Come on! Don't burn the place down", she complained. "Or ruin every piece of furniture we have."

"We won't!", Thomas assured her. "We know what we're doing. It's just fun", he told Sara. He could almost see the wheels of her mind turning. She seemed half a second from putting a stop to it all, but shrugged her shoulders and stepped back instead.

"I've got you now!", Thomas yelled and created a bubble of pure electricity that grew as it floated towards Armen. Armen covered his entire body in flames like Johnny Storm and then detonated the flames when Thomas' electric orb surrounded him, blasting it to pieces. Before Thomas had time to do anything else, Armen raised his hand above his head and started twirling an invisible lasso, that became real a moment later. He spun the flaming lasso a couple of times before hurling it at Thomas. The lasso came down over Thomas' head and Armen tightened it at the right time, pinning the boy's arms to his side, without burning him.

"You can't catch me that easily", Thomas said in his best cartoon bad guy voice and maneuvered his hands enough to grasp Armen's fire rope. Thomas' arms glowed before he intertwined a bolt of electricity with Armen's flames, sending the electricity towards Armen even as Thomas' electricity choked out the flames. Free from Armen's lasso, Thomas shot quick bolts of energy towards Armen, who created a flame shield and deflected them all.

Brian sat on the arm of the sofa bemused. This was a comic book page come to life with Thomas shooting lightning and his roommate sending flames everywhere. Brian was pretty sure he was the first comic fan to ever see anything like this, but all he'd keep from this moment were his memories. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see LaShaunta standing there with his camera case in her hand. "Here", she said and shoved the case into his chest. "I thought you might want this."

Only Amaris had noticed LaShaunta leave the room since everyone else was completely engrossed in the mock battle. Brian kept his camera in a safe under his bed and was curious as to how LaShaunta had gotten it out, but those were questions for another day. He held his camera under one arm and gave Shaunie a big hug with the other. He had his camera out of the case as fast as a samurai could draw his sword. He was shooting video a moment later.

Sara was the last person in the room to start enjoying the show, but she came around once she realized that Thomas and Armen weren't going to break anything. Alisha had been taking mental notes since the beginning because until now she'd never seen what a fight like this would look like. If her father made another super hero movie, Alisha would know just how to make the special effects look amazing.

Armen's eyes got wide when Thomas slowly raised his hands from his sides. A wall of pure electricity rose up from the floor as Thomas' hands came up. He could feel the energy crackling and tugging at the hairs on his arms. Thomas looked like a mad scientist as he conjured this latest creation and hurled it Armen. Armen threw his hands up and created a wedge of flames in front of him. The wall crashed against Armen's wedge, nearly breaking it, but it was the wall that broke around Armen's fire.

"Okay Thomas", Jan finally spoke up, playing the role of old sister. "It's a school night." He stuck out his lip in mock disappointment, but in truth the last few minutes had been so much fun. He knew they'd do it again anyway. The heavy emotions from earlier were far from gone, but the mock battle had done a lot to lighten everyone's mood.

"I'll get you next time!", Thomas declared as he prepared to go home.

Armen held up his flaming hands and sneered back. "I'll be waiting!"

Thomas threw his had back and bellowed his best bad guy laugh. "Muhuhahaha! Oh wait, Brian send me a copy of that video", he blurted in the instant before he and LaShaunta disappeared.

"I was about to go to bed, and this was way more excitement than I was expecting tonight", Amaris admitted. "But I'm glad I came."

"I'm glad you came too", Armen said and stood in front of Amaris. "It was great to meet you."

"Likewise", she said, her pale blue eyes twinkling as they shook hands again.

Then LaShaunta came back. "Ready to go?", she asked Amaris.

"Goodnight everybody", the former assassin said and gave Armen a quick hug. "I'm going to talk to Dmitri about keeping this from you. I'd have met you back then. Sometimes he over thinks things."

Armen laughed. "Sometimes. Goodnight Amaris", he said and then she and LaShaunta were gone. Armen put his arm around Sara as they stood there trying to put everything that had happened into perspective. LaShaunta reappeared and let out a yawn.

"You guys have to drive back to campus cause I'm not taking you", she declared and started towards her bedroom.

"Just give me your keys. I'll drive that shiny new car of yours to campus tonight", Armen suggested and LaShaunta turned quickly. The look on her face made him laugh.

"I'll drive them back", Jan offered and Brian turned off his camera and got ready to leave. He'd already started editing the amazing superhero footage.

Armen kissed Sara one more time. "This is an amazing night. I almost don't want it to end", he whispered in her ear.

"Yeah", she whispered back. "We'll talk more about it tomorrow I'm sure." Armen reluctantly let Sara go and joined Brian and Jan near the door, but then he turned back. "Hey, Alisha", he called. "We've talked about powers and stuff all night, but no one ever mentioned what your gift is."

A slow smile spread across Alisha's face. "It's usually easier to understand if I do a demonstration", she replied and Brian quickly turned his camera back on.

Billy tried not to act too eager when his secretary told him that Colonel Caufield had arrived, but having Jack back with the company made him nearly giddy. He didn't want to pine for the old days, but the best years of his life had been back when he and Jack had led teams of some of the most badass special operators in the world.

Jack walked in to the office wearing his class B uniform with all of those ribbons and badges. He looked like he'd just come from Central Cashing. "Hey, Jack, you thirsty?

"No. I'm alright", Jack replied as he took a seat. "You know Billy, I've actually got work to do for SOCOM, so I hope you've called me all the way to Langley for a good reason."

"Oh it's a good reason, Jack." Billy lifted a folder from the top of his desk and handed it over. "That's no April Fool. As of this moment you're back with the Agency. Your temp job with SOCOM is gonna have to wait." Billy smiled broadly. "Welcome back Jack."

Jack wasn't shocked that the CIA had won the tug-of-war to get his services although part of him wished they hadn't. "So what are you going to have me doing? Just your grunt work." Jack smiled, trying to make the best of it, but that little smile fell away when Billy spoke.

"You're going on assignment out in the field."

"You're kiddin!"

The smile hadn't left Billy's face until now as he got serious. "Integrity International is a military contractor operating in the Afghan theater and they do a hell of a lot of business with Uncle Sam. You know we like to have eyes on these guys to keep them in line, and we don't have anybody working the Integrity beat. Now I can't send Jack Caufield over there, but John Miller is perfect." That was a name Jack hadn't heard in years. John Miller had been created in the 80's when Jack had gone under cover to break up a ring selling military equipment on the black market.

"Miller's cover was never blown and all we have to do is update the backstops. We'll keep it close to your real job at CSB, so it'll be easier to remember." That was the whole point of John Miller. He was supposed to be from the Tidewater area and he was supposed to have gone to American U so Jack could easily slip into the character.

"So anyway, Integrity needs someone who knows finance and logistics. You can do both. You get read up and I'll have the tech guys start scrubbing your pictures from your company's website." Billy laughed as turned his screen around so Jack could see list of CSB executive bios. "Look at that mug", he laughed again.

"It's the only mug I've got", Jack replied as he flipped through the pages inside the folder. "So what do you expect me to find?"

"Hopefully nothing. Chief of Station in Islamabad is Soledad Marcos. You probably don't know her."

"I don't", Jack confirmed.

"Well she's top shelf."

Jack nodded as he wrapped his mind around all of this. He rubbed his chin wondering how in the world to break this news to his family. Telling Carol would be especially hard. His expression changed when he thought of something that might soften the blow with his wife.

"I want Boones as my handler on this op", Jack stated.

Billy sat back in his seat. "So you know Boones is back with the Company. Well, he's probably more ready to go back in the field than you are."

"Gee thanks", Jack said wryly.

"Request approved. You and Boones work out the details on this and get back with me by the end of the week. I need you guys in Pakistan as soon as possible."

Jack walked out of the office knowing that Billy had agreed to his request a little too quickly. He really wanted this operation to start. Jack didn't dwell on those thoughts for long because he had his family worry about. He called LaShaunta as he made his way home and asked if she was willing to bring Jan home for dinner that night. LaShaunta told Jack that all he had to do was ask. With that problem solved, Jack thought about what he'd fix for dinner. He'd have it mostly ready by the time Carol came home and then he'd spring the news on them.

Later that night, Jack put down his mostly finished glass of wine and looked around the table at his wife and children before clearing his throat. "So guy's I've got something to tell you."

"Is it a good something or a bad something?", Thomas asked for the rest of the family.

Jack chuckled. "That depends on where you sit", he replied then cleared his throat. "I've been assigned to The Agency and they're sending me on assignment. You already know I can't say where", he added. There was silence around the table for nearly a minute.

"I thought this going back to work for the government was a formality", Carol said. "They didn't say anything about sending you back to the field as a damned spy!"

Jack took Carol's hand and gave it a light squeeze. "Honey, I never said anything about being a spy."

Carol snatched her hand away and looked her husband in the eye. "I'm not 25 anymore Jack. Don't lie to me, or to them. Jan and Thomas deserve more. I deserve more. I knew Billy was up to no good. He just couldn't wait to get his hands on you." Carol's voice didn't betray her true level of frustration. It was one of the traits that helped make her a good attorney. She took a deep breath then put her hand on top of her husband's. "I'm not mad at you or even at The Agency", Carol began but had to sigh again before she continued. "Just be as straight with us as you can."

Jack sat back in the chair and drank the rest of his wine. "It's not a front line position, and I'm not going to be in the line of fire…", he started explaining the mission as best he could. If only he'd been right about any of it.

Sara didn't know exactly what bliss was, but she was pretty sure it had to feel a lot like this, lying on a blanket, arms folded behind her head looking up at the stars with her boyfriend lying right next to her. Her mind had been going a hundred miles an hour since the night before, but that had changed. Her only thought now was of how fortunate she was. Sara's gift was a huge part of her who she was, but a part that was hard to share. Deep down she knew that she wasn't willing to stay in a committed relationship while lying to her partner every minute of every day. Sooner or later Sara planned to tell Armen about what she could do, or break up with him. The longer they dated though, the more remote that second possibility became. Sara had connected with Armen. She loved him. The thought of not having him in her life made her heart began to race and her mouth dry up. She'd already decided to tell him that she was telepathic and telekinetic. The only thing she hadn't figured out before their powers were revealed to each other was whether she would ask for her friend's help or do it by herself. She knew that once she told him with or without help, the ball would have been in his court. She'd been spared the possibility of Armen's rejection over her powers since he was powerfully gifted too. The night before, when Sara hadn't been able to sleep, she'd talked Alisha, who'd been amused by the whole thing. Somewhere during their late night conversation though Alisha had said something very true that Sara hadn't wanted to admit to herself.

Armen was her equal. She'd dated Chris who was gifted, but he was no match for her, not that she ever planned to hurt him or anything. Still it was tremendous that Armen wasn't a normal guy and he wasn't just barely gifted either.

"When I saw Brian today, he kept calling me Jean. Just tell me, is this Jean Grey on the good side?"

"Of course she is", Armen replied with a chuckle then frowned. "Well most of the time."

"Most of the time is fine", Sara said with a little laugh of her own. "I'm only good most of the time too, so I guess I shouldn't be offended by being compared to this Jean Grey."

"She's one of the original X-men and she's really powerful too, so its kinda flattering for you", Armen replied.

"I am powerful", Sara told him again.

"Uh huh. Well let me ask you this", he paused and pushed up his elbows so he could look over at his beautiful girlfriend. "I saw you lifting a couple of people with your power yesterday, but could you pick up your Hummer back there?"

"Pick it up?!?", Sara nearly shouted.

"Yeah. I mean I saw Jan pick up a car like it was nothing. You don't hear me asking if she's powerful or not. So your silence means that you couldn't pick up your Hummer. I mean comics are cool but they aren't real life."

"Armen I could fold my Hummer in half without breaking a sweat. Heck, I could fold it in thirds if I wanted to", Sara replied then shook her head. "I can't believe you have me boasting like this."

He turned onto his side brushed his knuckles against Sara's cheek. "It's not boasting if it's true."

She smiled at him and gently kissed the back of his hand. "Yes it is", she replied and Armen let it drop.

He spun to his back and was quiet for a while before breaking the silence. "I wonder why Shaunie was all on me to reveal my secret when she could have been leaning on you to tell me. Then we both would have known sooner."

Sara smiled in the moonlight. "I asked her that this morning over breakfast. She told me that as far as she was concerned I wasn't just keeping one secret. I was keeping Jan's and Alisha's too. So the weight of my secrets was heavier than yours."

Armen rolled his eyes. "That sounds like something LaShaunta would say."

"She also said that you barely use your powers, so she was glad you weren't too rusty to control the explosion."

Armen laughed and broke off a stalk of grass. "She said that huh?"

"Yeah, and we agreed that your little show with Thomas was pretty awesome too. I wasn't crazy about it at first, but it was cool."

"That was a lot of fun!", Armen exclaimed with a smile. "Thomas is really good to be so young. When he gets older he's going to be a beast!"

"You were really good too. Especially since you don't use your powers often."

Armen gave a little chuckle. "I use my gift all the time. I'm using it right now. Why do you think you're not cold up here on a mountain top at night?"

"Huh", Sara breathed. "I hadn't really thought about it, but you're right. And I hate being cold."

"You complain about it, so you're never cold when I'm around, and you'll never have to be."

"Aww, that's so sweet", Sara cooed and rubbed her hand against Armen's recently shaven cheek. "But why does LaShaunta think you don't use it?"

"I don't do big showy stuff like last night very often", he began then let out a long sigh. "But the truth is that I only wanted the Broker and Mr. Stern to think I didn't use my powers much. I had to convince them I learned just enough about my powers to control them, but that I had no interest in becoming an expert at what I could do. The truth is… they never fooled me like they did LaShaunta."

"Fooled her?"

"Look, Shaunie's way smarter than me, but I always knew what sort of business the Broker and Morgen were in. They didn't come rescue me out of the kindness of their hearts. They wanted me to use my powers for their benefit just like Scarlforo did. I mean, they aren't monsters like him, but they aren't angels either. I owe both of them my life, but I don't feel obligated to do dirt for them. And I don't want the Broker trading my gift, no matter how much money I would have gotten paid."

"Wow", Sara breathed. "So they made LaShaunta do bad things for them?"

"Tried. I've told Shaunie for years that she's not what they wanted her to be, or even what she thought she was. To be honest I think the Broker and Morgen realized that because they never pushed her as hard as she pushed herself, and they never tried to break her like they could have. Like I said, they aren't monsters."

"Just not angels."

"Exactly."

"This is so much to process", Sara said after a few moments of thought.

"Yeah", Armen agreed. "I mean you're a former government agent for goodness sakes!"

Sara shrugged. "It wasn't as exciting as it sounds. It was training mostly", she told Armen.

"That's what all secret agents say to keep from having to tell stories", Armen said with a short laugh.

"Okay… some of it was exciting. And technically I'm still a special agent. I'm just on the reserve list."

"Do you have a badge and stuff?", Armen asked with more excitement that he'd wanted to show, but it was out there now. He saw Sara grin as she laid her head back against her folded arms. A moment later a tan wallet floated from her open car window, hovering over Armen until he reached up and took it.

"Special Agent Sara L. Hewitt, United States Department of Treasury", he read with a bit of amazement. "Pretty cool."

"I had to unlatch my glove box and grab the wallet from the bottom, all without moving a muscle", Sara said with a small amount of pride. "What do you think of that?"

"I don't think you suck at what you do, but in the comics Jean's got raw power too."

This time Sara rolled her eyes. "Raw power is so overrated. The hardest things to do as a telekinetic aren't blow holes in walls. It's to unlock doors, or type a message on a keyboard without being able to see it… stuff like that."

Armen laughed. "Brian also told me that there's some way to know who's really powerful among the gifted and who's just regular gifted."

Sara had a momentary flash of anger. Alisha, Jan, and LaShaunta had all agreed not to mention anything about the Linking until Armen got to experience it for himself, but Cassie was really busy the next few days. Sara had mentioned keeping the Linking a surprise to Brian too, but he must have forgotten.  She'd remind him soon. "Something like that", she replied simply.

"So who's the most powerful of the people I know. Like I said I already know Jan's powerful."

Sara considered for a moment. "Yeah, Jan could be the most powerful or her cousin Taylor. They're both off the charts powerful. Or it could be Lisa. I don't know if you've met Lisa, but she's really powerful too. I shouldn't leave out Alisha either. In her own way she in the running for the most powerful. Or…", Sara said as she ran her fingers over Armen's chest. "Or… I could be me."

He laughed. "Oh come on Sara."

"No really!", she exclaimed and rolled over to face him. "I'm not kidding. I'm really powerful."

"Compared to them?"

"Compared to anybody", she replied.

Armen spun towards his girlfriend and propped his head up on his hand. "Do you think you could beat me?", he asked with a smirk.

"Yep", she answered almost instantly.

"Oh really!", Armen exclaimed. "Just that quick?"

"I'm not saying you're a pushover, but yeah. I could beat you if I had to."

Armen chuckled. "Shaunie told you I can control heat itself, not just fire."

"Hey, I'm not saying I wouldn't get burned. I might even get scarred for life in a fight with you. But they'd be picking up pieces of you for a week", Sara said then laughed.

"Is that so", a blushing Armen replied just before rolling over on top of Sara and pinning her arms to the blanket.

"The truth's hard to swallow sometimes, but don't feel bad", a smirking Sara bragged and struggled a bit just so he could feel her muscle power. Armen watched her biceps roll up into the muscled knots that he loved so much.  It was a small thing, but he loved the muscle insert where her pecs, delts, and biceps all met. Her pectorals were pretty ripped although he rarely got to see them like this since Sara didn't wear low cut blouses very often. She kept up her push for a few seconds before laughing and relaxing. Armen leaned down and kissed her smirking lips. He let go of her wrists and ran his fingers through her lush golden locks, while staring in her moonlit eyes. Sara ran her hands along Armen's while his hands inched their way across her shoulders. Even relaxed he felt the density of Sara's muscles beneath her smooth skin.  It was almost like he could feel all the hard work she'd put into remaking her body.  Then his hands inched their way to her breast. He gave them a gentle squeeze, and felt a rush at their supple softness. The rest of her was so hard and athletically lean that it was amazing she'd been able to keep her nice big shapely breasts.  The lust and passion was building between the two of them as Armen ran his hands under Sara's blouse, slowly bouncing over the undulating bumps of her abs as she breathed rapidly to those breasts. It was like his hands just had to feel her full breasts. Each was much more than a handful. She let out a little moan as he gave her tits a squeeze. He could feel her little pink nipples start to harden. The wasn't the first time the two of them had gotten this far, but Armen never wanted to go further than Sara was willing. Her body shuddered beneath him, and she let out a little breath. Then he pulled back to look at her.

"You are so amazing", Armen said quietly then grinned. "Even if you can't lift up a car."

Sara shook her head slowly then smiled as she looked up at him with loving eyes. A moment later she pointed back over Armen's shoulder. He frowned before looking behind and above him. He gasped. The undercarriage of Sara's Hummer was only a foot from his face. When Armen spun back to Sara, his expression made her giggle. "I didn't even hear you move it!", he exclaimed as the Hummer started floating back towards its parking place.

"I lifted it by the tires", she explained. "That way…" Armen cut her off when he dove in and kissed her with even more passion. He pulled her blouse up and her bra down. His lips left hers and kissed a trail down to her breasts, pushing them against his face like lush fleshy, trembling pillows. He opened his mouth as wide as he could and took in as much as he could.

"Wait…", Sara moaned as his hands made it to her legs. "I've got to put it back", she managed, but didn't manage to get the Hummer back on the ground as easily as she'd lifted it. She was lucky the alarm wasn't set because it would have went off since she dropped it from several inches above the ground. Armen's attention was now on Sara's muscular runner's thighs. They excited him almost as much as her insane telekinetic display had. He licked and kissed along the inside of her legs, making them flex in response. He let out a lust filled groan as Sara's thighs tensed up, with ropes of muscle coiling from her knees up to her hips.  He forced his hands beneath her, just to feel her glutes harden, then he went back to work on her thighs. He brushed his fingers up the insides of her thighs, feeling her shudder beneath him. He could feel her heart pounding in her chest now. Her breathing came in short, airy gasps, even as her hands roamed his body too, finally stopping at her boyfriend's painfully hard manhood. Instead of pulling her hands away, Sara gave Armen a gentle squeeze and he moaned this time.

His hands reached Sara's lacy panties. He paused for a moment, before sliding them out of the way and easing his finger against her moist labia. Sara's back arched as a shot a pleasure went through her body. Armen's finger moved a little more and then he stopped, but then he felt Sara's hand on his wrist. She took a deep breath and pulled against his arm. Armen eased his slightly curled finger into Sara and watched her body tense up for a split second. Her rock hard abs and obliques contrasting with the jiggling flesh of her big breasts made Armen, erection grow harder still. Sara was so beautiful that he could hardly stand it.

Sara's hands fumbled a bit as she tried to unfasten Armen's belt, but she managed. He did the rest with hurried movements. And then there was silence around the both of them, while each held their breath. Armen hating take the time to do it, but he reached into his already unbuttoned pants to get to his wallet. Like lots of college kids, Armen kept a condom in his wallet just in case, although for the last several months there'd only been one woman he'd been attracted to. He snatched open the package. He leaned over Sara, as ready as he'd ever been. He glanced down at her body before his eyes locked on hers. That moment lasted longer than either of them might have thought, but in the end, Sara slowly smiled and gave him the smallest, most timid of nods. "I'm ready", she told him even if she had no idea what it meant.

She felt Armen position himself against her. He leaned down and kissed her again. "I love you", he said and entered her for the first time. Sara's back arched and her muscles flexed hard from the top of her traps to her steel hard calves. Armen put his hands on her hips and pulled back easy and inched forward again. Tears welled in Sara's blue-gray eyes even as a passionate smile curled up her lips. She pulled Armen's chest against hers and wrapped her arms around him as she made love for the first time.

to be continued...

Recent Chapters

There are plenty of others where this story came from.  Please check out the bookshelf for all the past chapters of Power and Fury and my other series.

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