I knew they'd turn on me. I start to figure out what is going on and they call treason and conspiracy instantly. Dale seems to be in the same boat as me though, maybe now he'll finally open up some. Either way, once I get out of this I am done with these people. They will pull my string no longer.

I refuse to be a puppet.

We boarded the helicopter with no escort, just Dale, the pilot of the helicopter, myself, and a young man in an army uniform sitting beside me, handcuffed. I noticed him as the soldier who had not attacked me outside of Jack's bunker when my abilities had first been activated.

"Why are you here Agent Richardson?" he asked.

"Little bit of government trouble," Dale replied with a sigh, "But what are you doing here?"

"The leader of the squad made some trumped-up charges against me so that I would get off of the team," he replied, "This helicopter was redirected to pick you up before it dropped me off,"

"Sounds a lot like why we were taken in," I commented.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Dale replied to the young man.

"By the way, I'm Arnold Wilson," he said, introducing himself, "I'd shake hands but-," he said, rattling his handcuffs.

I waved my hand over them and made the cuffs shake on his hands. I stopped briefly and tried again, this time to only move the the lock itself instead of the whole cuffs. After several long seconds the metal clicked and the cuffs fell onto the floor.

"Much appreciated," he said, moving his hands of if they were cramped.

It seemed that Dale and I took priority over Wilson as the helicopter never did drop him off and simply began its long flight across the country. Arnold had drifted off to sleep after we stopped for a refuel that night.

"Dale?" I asked.

"Hmm?"

"What's goin' to happen to us?"

"You'll probably be put on trial for publicity, but they've already made their decision, they had with Bryant,"

"He told me that you testified against him at his hearin',"

"I did, and I'm not going to with you, you haven't done anything wrong,"

"What happened with Bryant?"

"He killed his superior officer, then five other men and tried to escape, but he then turned himself in, hoping that they would forgive him but they didn't and he was sentenced to death. As you would imagine, that didn't sit too well with him and he fled. He had some crazy theory and explanation for it all but they never would listen, I don't know if there was a good reason for what he did but he slaughtered those men without remorse. Then...the government engineered me to fight him,"

"You were made to kill Bryant?"

"Yes, I was. But they didn't make me powerful enough to be nearly invincible like Bryant was. I couldn't stop him, and since I had 'served with distinction in the face of danger' I was kept in service, and only a year and a half later, they decided to create you to end Bryant forever, but you were activated too early. You enhancements should have come into being once you had fully matured around nineteen or twenty years old. For some reason, your powers came into being much sooner than they should have, and that's what led us to where we are now,"

"So you think they've already made up their minds?" I asked.

"Yes, I do, but I think that we at least have a chance. And I'm going to fight this all the way,"

"I just hope it's enough," I said and paused for a moment, "How may of us are there? How many people like us?" I asked.

"You, Bryant, and myself are what the others refer to as Recents. We're soldiers engineered post nineteen-sixty it seems. I know that the woman who taught you Russian is also one of us." Dale told me.

"Na?" I asked, using my nickname for her.

"Yeah. I knew that she worked for the government but I only recently found out that she is the daughter of a now dead one of our kind. Her powers carried from her mother but diluted. She has abilities similar to my own. All of the others are what are called Originals. They're the old ones, engineered in nineteen sixty and earlier. I would assume Myral is an Original with her ability to trick us so easily. There are rumored more but I don't have anything good on most of them,"

"Who was the other man who I managed to get the photos of from the simulation?" I asked.

"I don't know his true name, but they call him Zero-Plus,"

"Zero-Plus?" I asked, "Why do they call him that?"

"If you put a plus over a zero, you get crosshairs," Dale told me.

"Oh. That explains it. What else do you know about him?"

"He is supposedly one of the oldest and rumored to be one of the most powerful of us all. I don't know what exactly he can do but I've only seen him in action once, he saved my life, though I never actually met him. He works for a world-wide agency that I was supposedly inducted into. Thought it seems I've been left a lot further out of the loop than I thought,"

"Precisely, and he also seems to owe something to our mutual friend Contact. He always helps him if he needs it, and has apparently taken an interest in your safety," Dale told me.

"If this Zero-Plus is the oldest, how old is he?"

"We believe that he was engineered in the late forties or early fifties, around a surge in Mafia crime, during the booming days of the casinos and the start of the cold war,"

"That would make him-,"

"Seventy years old, if they did it to him at your age about," Dale told me.

"His agin' must have been slowed,"

"They slowed mine," Dale said, "I'm forty-two,"

"You look thirty,"

"Exactly," he replied.

"What 'bout me?"

"Who knows? I wasn't supportive of another project so soon after Bryant's failure and I was kept out of the loop until you were completed. Who knows what modifications they did to you?"

"I got that picture of Zero-Plus in the simulation, was it accurate?"

"Yes, he is larger than I am, bald and always wears a black suit with a white shirt and blue tie,"

"Why a blue tie? Isn't that noticeable?" I asked.

"It's his mark. I would guess that it was his look before he was engineered and that he kept it, but I can't be sure. He always leaves one where he finishes a job. It's rumored to be a uniform that he is the last of who wore them. No one can be sure though,"

"Do you know who the man was that fought Drake Hensley the first time we were in D-C?" I asked, "The Vindicator?"

"Hale," Dale stated.

"Pardon?" I asked.

"They say his name is Hale, but even that isn't known for sure. He's another old one. Some say he's ancient. I thought he was nothing but a legend until that night in D-C but snipers and security claim to have seen a large man with a massive sword evade all security and forces in the D-C area with ease. There are even only a few glimpses of him on camera to validate the claims that he was even there at all. That and you seeing him in action,"

"What about Jack?"

"What about him?"

"He fought Bryant for me, and kicked his ass. I don't thnk he could have if Bryant was expecting it but he wasn't ready for it at all,"

"Jack was a soldier, but he never could do anything like that. If we get out of this, I'll look into it. Jack worries me sometimes, I hope he hasn't gone and done something rash,"

"There are even more like us out there?"

"Yes, one who calls himself 'The Assassin'. He's powerful, and unaligned, which makes him even more dangerous,"

"Have you ever met him?"

"Not so much met as encountered," he began, "We fought once when I had first received my abilities to defeat Bryant,"

"Well, you're still here,"

"Yeah, but that's only because he spared me. I got in his way and it nearly cost me my life, I've never seen anyone be able to move so fast and fight so hard at once,"

"What happened to him?"

"I don't think anyone knows, he's just gone, but I'm sure he isn't done and I'm also sure he'll reappear someday,"

"Hopefully on our side,"

"Hopefully,"

"Any more that you know about?"

"Yes. There was one I tried to keep tabs on for a long but I only ever really heard stories. He is another old one, far older than you or I, but if he is still out there, he's retired now. I haven't received any reports on him in a decade and a half," he told me.

"About the same time that you and Bryant got your abilities?"

"You know what? You're right. I never thought about it before,"

"He may have seen someone new, you, to take his place, and stepped down,"

"If that is true, then it would mean..." Dale said.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It means if I'm right then I know who he is," Dale almost whispered.

"Who?" I asked.

"My old mentor, the one who trained me...Like I've been training you. I thought he was just an agent...could he really have been hiding it for all these years?"

Dale fell silent and looked out of the helicopter's window. He didn't say a word for the rest of the flight.

It was near morning when we touched down just north of Washington D.C. Disembarking from the helicopter, we strode to an awaiting vehicle while Arnold Wilson was lead to another vehicle. Ours took us to the White House where Marine Honor Guards stood with the morning light reflecting off of their brass buttons.

We walked into a large room with a large table, a man was sitting on the far side, who, by his uniform, I recognized him as the Secretary of Defense. Someone in a suit sat by him with his back turned to us.

"Mr. Secretary," Dale said with stiff government formality.

"Take a seat," the secretary commanded gruffly.

We did as he commanded.

"Richardson, this has gone on long enough, your prototype was activated too early, and has failed to meet its objective," he said, looking at me as I stared back with a scowl, "We are shutting down the project and decommissioning all assets after a hearing," he said, looking at me again.

"So you already have your verdict?" I asked.

"Yes, the hearing is a formality, but we already know what will happen," he told me.

"And what exactly does 'decommission all assets' mean?"

"It mean that the project will be put on ice and you will be terminated,"

Standing up, I started strolling over to him and thought of a creative way to remove his entrails, but Dale stood in my way.

"Save your energy, there will be another time," he said to me.

I nodded and slowly sat back down.

"When is his hearing?" Dale asked.

"This evening," the secretary told us with a note in his voice of being wished to be left alone.

We left the White House and entered a military vehicle that awaited us outside. It, along with another car that The Secretary of Defense rode in escorted us to the J. Edgar Hoover building. An agent escorted the four of us to the head of the F.B.I. He was a stern looking man who wore a white shirt and gray tie.

"Agent Richardson, Mr Xander," he greeted us as we entered with The Secretary of Defense and Arnold.

"You know why you're here, sit down," he said, taking a seat of his own, "Your hearing will be brief. We want it to be fair though. I think the courts have already made up their minds, but we're gonna give you a shot, and maybe we can change their minds. The C-I-A and the Fed may be against you, but the F-B-I is on your side. We're going to try and help,"

"Who's we?" I asked.

Two figures stepped out of the shadows to where they were just visible, but not distinguishable. One was huge man, taller than Dale. I assumed that he was Zero-Plus. I saw that the second man stepped with a slight limp, Contact.

"You're going to help me?" I asked.

"We have some strong political influences," Contact said in his wise and mysterious voice.

"Thank you," I replied.

"We have made the mistake of letting our brothers and sisters go unheard before, and this time we know you have done nothing wrong," Contact told me.

"We will do our part to make sure you go free, and at the very least protect you," Zero-Plus informed me in a distinctly British accent.