Ace had enough to file a suspicious activity report, with the description of the man and the vehicle. If something happened in-spite of his efforts, he had information about where she’d been found which might help narrow down the kidnapper’s location. He’d do everything he could to stop or fix this, he could at least commit to that much.

The day Ace filed the report he checked the news site, just as his future self had done, to see if he had prevented it. It stated that a man named Alex Vaugner had been arrested trying to abduct a young girl, whose name was not mentioned for her protection. Ace, packed up his laptop and headed to the vending machine, he did feel like he deserved a candy bar, and he knew he would find the card when he retrieved it. Afterwards, he headed to the restroom, to finally see what lied beyond the door.

Shortly after Ace arrived and made his introductions, he realized this must be some sort of pocket dimension. A place outside of normal space, or at least that’s what he expected, it would explain why neither his power nor his GPS seemed to work in relation to it. This also suggested how it could gather people from such vastly different locations, using the relatively short corridors which led here.He’d asked everyone about their arrival to confirm as much at any rate. Everyone except the girl standing at the precipice of the distant hall. She had been watching them since before he arrived, clearly uncertain whether she should join the events at hand. The others had not seemed to notice, and he’d chose not to tip her hand in any way. He figured she would make her way over when she was ready, at the very least he didn’t perceive her as a threat.

OK, it wasn’t exactly true that no one else had noticed her, its just that they quickly forgot she was there. Leo had caught a glimpse of her but was quickly overwhelmed by Cleo’s ability, after which he never had a second thought about her. In Fact, he’d only really noticed the others once they’d made their way towards the interior of the room. His nature helped him resist Cleo’s power, but he didn’t seem to be completely immune to her presence. In truth, he had been absorbing the influence of her ability since he arrived, muting, or at least dulling it. This was the reason Ace had barely been affected, even though he was in the throws of puberty, when Cleo’s power was most debilitating to members of the opposite sex. Ordinarily, after only a few moments, Ace would have been acting like a lovesick puppy.

Cleo had yet to notice the dynamic between her and Leo’s power, nor did she realize that everyone here had special abilities. Even the people who’d realized they’d had a supernatural ability of their own had yet to imagine that was why they had been gathered here. All except for Ace, who was almost certain of it, and the girl watching them from the passageway. When Cleo had entered she had already been standing there debating about whether she should continue forward. Cleo had looked straight at her before deciding to have a seat, but didn’t say a word after realizing it was a girl. Cleo hadn’t really thought about the girl since. Iya, however, never noticed her presence at all. Perhaps this was because she was still under the influence of drugs, or because she had been distracted by what were now mostly phantom pains. She had sat down, not long after, and fixated her shy gaze on Leo. She was curious about the attractive and straightforward man, who was then doing his best to charm her, though she could tell his interest was mostly friendly. Still, he seemed a kind enough person, but she wasn’t quite sure what any of this was all about.

The girl in the hall shared very much the same sentiment as Iya, at least about the situation if not the charming man. Only for her it was more profound, bordering on fear. She didn’t know if she could turn back, and she had no idea what was unfolding before her. She had an almost phobic fear of the unknown, which sometimes made it difficult for her to move much less take action of any kind. In essence, at this moment she was incapable of making any kind of decision, she could only observe and wait.

She had always been like this, for as long as she remembered, she wasn’t even sure how she’d gotten herself into all this. She’d stared at the card for a long while, wondering how it’d gotten into her drawer on top of her sketchbook. Drawing was the only thing that made her feel normal, and she’d needed to get her book. The card had been attached to the cover with a small piece of scotch tape. She’d yet to remove it, and was carrying the book in her arms close to her chest, like some kind of security blanket. She remembered opening her door to head downstairs and out into the backyard, where she liked to sit and draw, her parents had made sure it was a private place where she could be outside. Of course, she never made it there, or even down the stairs. None of what was happening made any sense to her, but the others seemed to be taking it all in stride, or perhaps they were just pretending. She often feared that others were always just pretending, she couldn’t trust or know anything about them, not for sure. She even wondered often if her parents were guilty of this.

She had been borne Marry Elizabeth Simpson, but she never told anyone her name. She’d even asked that her parents call her Liza, because it wasn’t really her name. Though they probably had no idea it was an attempt to guard her true identity. To them it was an attempt at normalization. Perhaps this was what the people here were doing, attempting to normalize the situation. So Liza continued to watch.