by Anne
Disclaimer: The characters of Adam Newman, Megabyte Damon, Kevin Wilson, Ami Jackson, Jade Weston, General William Damon, Colonel Masters, Millie Damon and Caroline Damon belong to Roger Damon Price, Thames Television and Nickelodeon. So do any other names or events linked to the Tomorrow People TV series.
Max Evans, Liz Parker, Maria DeLuca, Michael Guerin, Isabel Evans, Alex Whitman, Kyle Valenti, Sheriff Jim Valenti and Milton belong to Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and WB. All other concepts and events linked to Roswell also belong to them.
The characters of Joe Dawson and James Horton (who appear in name only) belong to Panzer/David, Rysher/Gaumont Television. So do the concepts of immortality, the Watchers and the Hunters.
The characters of Geoff Anderson, Gil Hawkins, Jim Beckett and Simon Trent belong to me and should not be used without permission.
"Adam, are you okay?" Max leant over the Australian as he struggled to sit up. Adam looked around and the young alien could see the concern in his eyes as he saw Megabyte sprawled out on some kind of cot bed on the other side of the room.
Adam groaned and started to put his hand to his head. Max put his hand out to stop him, not wanting his companion to find out the quirks of the headband the hard way, as he had himself earlier.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Adam focused his eyes and looked at Max, realisation seeming to dawn in his mind. He glanced again over at Megabyte and then back again at Max, noticing the headbands for the first time. Max's suspicions were confirmed as Adam reached for his own head again.
"Hey, don't do that, " Max said again.
Adam stopped and this time looked at him with an unspoken question.
"It will hurt, that's why. The headband sends out some sort of electrical pulse. If you try and get a grip on it, to take it off, the pain gets worse. From what I've tried so far, I think you'd be unconscious before you achieved much. Mind you, I have this nasty feeling there's some kind of locking mechanism on it. That's what it looks like from what I could see from looking at the ones on you and Megabyte." Max paused. "It's hard to be sure when you're trying to avoid touching the thing."
"Oh okay. Thanks for the warning." Adam rose to his feet very unsteadily and leaned for a moment on the side of the bed on which he had been lying.
Max heard a groan from the other side and the room and looked over to see Megabyte struggling to sit up. The redhead looked very pale as did Adam. Those headbands hadn't agreed with his companions, not at all. "Megabyte?"
"Adam, you look how I feel. I've got the mother of all headaches." Megabyte looked around the room, pausing as he noticed the heavy door to his right and the small windows near the top of the concrete walls. "Any idea where we are?"
"We're in the basement," Max informed them. "At least I'm guessing it's the basement, judging from that bomb-shelter sign on the wall by the door."
"So what are these things for?" Megabyte indicated the band on his head. "I heard what you were telling Adam. I wonder what Masters has dreamed up in that nasty little mind of his this time? Whatever these bands do, I don't think they're going to be particularly good for our health."
"After you guys blacked out, Masters said something about the bands and psychic powers. I got the impression that if we use our powers the bands somehow use them against us. Maybe it's some kind of feedback loop or something similar."
" Our powers?" asked Megabyte. "Yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that. At first I thought you might be a Tomorrow Person after the flash I saw when we met at the UFO centre."
"You got a flash as well?" asked Max, a thousand questions rushing through his mind at once. He'd suspected as much at the time, especially after Jade had paled and asked her friend if he was okay.
"Yeah," confirmed Megabyte. "Hey that force-wall thing you did earlier was really cool. We can't do anything like that, at least I don't think we can. Adam?"
"No, I don't think Max is a Tomorrow Person, Megabyte. The question is, if you're not one of us, who are you?"
Max hesitated before replying. He had a strong feeling he could trust both of them. After all they seemed to be in as much trouble as he was. Yet there was still one thing bugging him.
"At first I thought you were might be someone called Nasedo. W--I've been looking for him for a while." Max hoped they hadn't noticed he'd almost said we instead of I. That was two slip ups in as many minutes. Not like him at all, he'd had years of pretending to be someone he wasn't. Why was he suddenly having problems now? Maybe it's because you've found others that you can relate to, a small voice whispered in the back of his mind.
"Yeah you mentioned his name just before Masters' goons struck," remembered Megabyte. "So if you're not a Tomorrow Person, who or what are you?"
"What's a Tomorrow Person?" asked Max. He saw Adam and Megabyte looking at each other and continued. "Well if I tell you about me, it's only fair that the information goes both ways."
Adam nodded. "We're the next stage of human evolution," he explained. "As you've probably guessed we can teleport, and talk to each other telepathically."
"So it's basically psychic powers you have?" asked Max. "That explains what Masters was going on about." He saw the looks his companions were giving him and continued hastily. "After he fitted this head band he warned me about using psychic powers. I sort of guessed he must have thought I was like you guys, with all the talking about telepathy and the like."
He frowned. "That was the bit that I didn't really get. Masters kept going on about you using telepathy and yet I could hear everything you were saying."
"You must be telepathic then," said Megabyte excitedly. "So what else can you do? Apart from that force wall thing, I mean. Even though you're not a Tomorrow Person it sounds as though you have some of the same powers that we do."
"Yeah it does, doesn't it? My powers aren't psychic though, at least I never thought of them in that way." Max thought for a moment, before asking what was on his mind. "Do you have healing powers and can you open locks by thinking about it?"
Adam paused before replying. "We have telekinesis and I used to have healing powers, at least until I burnt them out. At least I'm guessing that's what happened to them. They've been almost non existent after I healed a guy after he came off a building. Have you?"
Max nodded. "But I'm not a Tomorrow Person. My powers are because…" he took a deep breath and wondered if he was doing the right thing even as he spoke. "My powers are because of where I'm from."
"Where you're from?" asked Adam.
"Don't you get it, Adam?" Megabyte rolled his eyes. "He means he's an alien. Is that right?"
Max nodded. "How did you know?"
Megabyte looked smug. "I've read a lot of science fiction and comic books."
Adam looked at him in disbelief. "It wouldn't have anything to do with the flash you got from him either, I suppose?"
"Yeah well there's that too." Megabyte admitted. "But hey, you must admit, it sounded good."
"So what makes you Tomorrow People? Is it something in the genes?" Max asked.
Megabyte looked down at his trousers and grinned. " No it's in the sweatpants," he deadpanned.
Adam groaned. "That's bad, Megabyte, even for you."
Megabyte opened his mouth, then turned around as the door to the room they were in, opened. He glanced at Adam who shook his head. Max silently agreed, as he hazarded a guess as to what they had been thinking. If they tried to escape now, he doubted they would get very far.
Brooke-Smythe entered the room, putting the tray of test tubes and syringes down on the table in the middle of the room. He had Beckett and Hawkins with him, both of whom were heavily armed.
"Didn't you get enough to feed your vampires with last time?" asked Megabyte sarcastically.
Brooke-Smythe glared at him as he picked up one of syringes. "Right, which one of you wants to go first? I know, I'll choose." He pointed to Megabyte. "You can, seeing you've got such a smart mouth on you. Do I need to get one of these men to hold you down or are you going to cooperate?"
"Oh I wouldn't want to put you to any trouble," the redhead replied sulkily.
"Megabyte…" Adam started to say warningly.
"Oh don't worry about your friend. He's knows what's good for him, don't you, Megabyte?" Brooke-Smythe smiled thinly as he plunged the needle in. He seemed almost to delight in what he was doing.
Megabyte winced as the needle slid into his arm. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, as Adam gave him another warning glance.
As Max felt the needle slide into his own arm, he wondered whether the man had ever been told how to take blood samples without hurting the patient. Ouch! Obviously not. It looked too that Masters must have finally discovered what had happened to the original samples. I wonder how long before he realises who I am really am, thought Max, as he watched the syringe fill with the alien blood which flowed through his veins. Once Masters had this particular batch analysed, the proverbial cat would be out of the bag.
As Brooke-Smythe packed up his supplies and left the room, with the two men in tow, Max noticed Megabyte watching him, a grin slowly spreading over his face. The other boy must be putting two and two together. As soon as the door closed Megabyte turned to Max, unable to contain himself any longer.
"Okay, what's the story with the blood samples?"
Max grinned, lowering his voice as he leaned closer to the two Tomorrow People. "I don't think they were expecting to find test tubes of Tabasco Sauce."
"Tabasco sauce?" asked Megabyte, looking down at the still oozing wound on his arm. "I know I have a hot temper sometimes, but last I looked it was still blood flowing through there."
"I can change the molecular structure of things," Max explained.
Both Megabyte and Adam laughed. "Why Tabasco Sauce?" the Australian asked.
"It's an alien thing," explained Max. "I like sweet and spicy things together. I go through a lot of Tabasco Sauce and I suppose in the spur of the moment…"
"I love it," exclaimed Megabyte. "Just imagine Masters' face when he found out. Serves the creep right."
Adam's tone of voice brought Max back to the seriousness of the situation they were in, as he asked his next question. "Roswell aliens. Max I know this is going to sound crazy but you wouldn't know anything about the '47 crash would you?"
"Hey I thought I was the one who was supposed to come out with those sorts of things," complained Megabyte.
"Well, actually," replied Max. "That's how we got here in the first place, in the 1947 crash. My earliest memories are breaking free of some kind of cocoon and wandering along the road…I think we must have been in those cocoons in some sort of suspended animation for years because we only looked about seven when we were found by our foster parents"
"That's what I saw in the flash, the cocoon thing I mean," confirmed Megabyte.
Adam frowned. "We?" he asked. "Why do I get the feeling you haven't told us everything?"
Max felt a slight trickle of guilt wash over him. "Sorry, it's hard for me to trust someone. I've spent most of my life hiding who I am and I guess old habits die hard."
"Look you can trust us," Adam was trying to reassure him, and Max appreciated the effort he was making. "After all we have a fair idea what's you're going through, trying to pretend to be normal. We've got just as much to lose here as you have. There's other Tomorrow People besides just Megabyte and I to worry about too."
"Jade? She's one of you, isn't she?" Max looked at Megabyte and wondered what the relationship between him and the girl he had been with was.
Megabyte blushed, his face changing colour to match his hair. "Yeah, Jade's one of us. No, she's not my girlfriend if that's what you're thinking. No way. It's not going to happen."
Max caught the small smile Adam made before he turned away. So he hadn't been the only who had noticed Megabyte jump at the innocently asked question then. It looked as though it wasn't only himself and Liz who were trying to sort out a relationship. Liz. Max stopped as he thought about her. He hoped he hadn't left things too late. If he never got to the chance to tell her how he really felt, he'd never forgive himself.
Colonel Masters reached for his cup of coffee as he watched the events unwinding on the video screen in front of him. He knew it had been a particularly good idea to place a video feed into the basement room.
So Max Evans wasn't a Tomorrow Person, but an alien survivor of the Roswell crash. It sounded as though he had stumbled onto a bit more than he had hoped for when he'd mistaken the boy for the Tomorrow Person he knew as Adam. He made a mental note to inform Trent of this new information. They certainly had their work cut out for them, what with aliens, Tomorrow People, and Trent's own problem.
He sighed to himself. So much to do, so little time. Still one thing at a time he supposed. Even though that mess up with the blood samples had cost him time, at least he had learnt about Evans' other power because of it. He glanced at his watch. Soon it would be time to put the next stage of his plan into operation. This was the part he was really looking forward to, telling General Damon what his plans were for Megabyte, Adam and hopefully the rest of their kind.
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