#haydenthehuman

Rowan had been at C.A.R.M.A. for a good month at this point, trying to keep her head down and not get into trouble when she’d first gotten the coveted position as a researcher.  While she had a penchant for mischief and trouble making when she got restless, she’d behaved.  It was damn near intolerable.

But she knew how to follow the rules when it was for her own good, had even put in a request for her own pet project that she’d tried to start while at Pansaw University - studying how the Metahuman genome was passed from parent to child, and how it wasn’t.  It was a monumental task, but one she was passionate to tackle.  And if part of that was because she wanted to know why her brother had been a Meta and she hadn’t, well, that was just a bonus.

It was a quiet afternoon in the biology labs, Rowan diligently working on her notes with one hand while shoveling cheese balls into her mouth with the other.  Only the sound of the door opening pulled her from her reverie, hand pausing with a good six balls within it as she recognized her boss.  They’d never been formally introduced, but it was damn difficult to exist at C.A.R.M.A. and not recognize Hayden.

“I solemnly swear I washed my hands before I touched any samples,” came the immediate defense, hand still paused as she debated dropping the snacks back into the bag or eating them regardless.

It was late at night when Manny began tossing and turning in his sleep, mumbling incoherently on occasion. He’d been sucked pretty deep into a dream. Vivid images flashed through his mind in quick snaps but they were imprinted in his memory. 

A spot in Pansaw as the sun set. 

He sees a group of people he quickly recognized as the Nephilim approaching each other in a circle. 

There’s a pulse of energy, a flash of red, and what came next he couldn’t see, but it was enough to get his heart racing as dread filled his entire being...

“No!” He woke with a start then, shooting up into a sitting position with a sharp gasp. Manny’s eyes flew open as a cloudy white film dissipated. He sat there, gasping for breath and hands trembling. His precognitive part of his abilities always took Manny a minute to properly collect himself after. 

Manny’s arm shot out from under the blanket, hand slamming down on the blaring alarm with a soft groan of protest. He didn’t want to get up or leave his bed, especially when he had Hayden there with him and it was so comfortable and warm. After a moment or two, he finally untangled himself from the sheets and rolled into a sitting position, feet on the floor, curling his toes into the rug as he stretched his arms over his head and arched his back. Barely awake, he didn’t notice anything different until he padded lazily into the bathroom and took a look at himself in the mirror. He froze, staring at his reflection blankly before he squeezed his eyes shut and reopened them. Nope, nothing had changed. The shoulder length ash blonde hair with subtle summer highlights, the feminine features surrounding his green eyes, the slim yet tan and toned figure under the t-shirt and shorts. Hesitantly he raised a hand to his face, touching his cheek, and trailed his fingers down where his other hand met him on his chest. He squeaked out in surprise, brows shooting up to his hairline; those were real. 

“Oh my god...” the Meta breathed out, inhaling and exhaling a few times in a futile attempt to keep the panic at bay. “Oh my god. Oh. My. God. Haaayyyyddeeennn!” He turned to quickly leave the bathroom, and when he came back into the bedroom, he froze again at the male figure standing beside his bed. “Holy shit. H-Haybae?” 

A lot had certainly changed since the Nephilim had attacked a few years ago. For one thing, Manny’s severely altered memories about his past had all returned slowly but surely. He remembered everything about being part of the Rebel Army and the failed mission that ended up with him forced into C.A.R.M.A’s Meta Squad. Despite that, he’d decided to stay with the organization of his own volition, hoping to use his telepathic abilities to aid the new Commander in cleaning up C.A.R.M.A from the inside out. Also, he really enjoyed working in the same place as his girlfriend Hayden, especially considering she had such a knack for getting herself in trouble every now and then. 

The agent roamed through the halls of C.A.R.M.A, occasionally giving a casual nod of greeting to some of his fellow employees that were heading out for the day. He’d spent the last few weeks at a C.A.R.M.A base in New York at the Commander’s request to “interview” some of the employees there. He’d finished up and headed home a day earlier than expected, so he’d dropped his luggage off at home and headed over to work in hopes of surprising Hayden. Manny didn’t need to be psychic to know that the Head of Research would still be working right about now. He found her in one of the labs and smiled to himself as he leaned against the doorframe, just watching her fondly for a moment. 

“Don’t you know it’s quittin’ time, Haybae?” he finally said with a light chuckle, walking up to her, “I hope you haven’t been sleeping here while I’ve been gone.”

Sometimes when Manny was feeling bored, he’d go check out the newest arrivals for the human trafficking ring that the Nephilim ran. He liked to see what Scarlett and the others in charge of that stuff would be getting their hands on, and sometimes, he liked to sneak a piece for himself. He walked slowly down the line of women and a few men, his hands behind his back as he eyed them carefully. He pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes slightly, not at all impressed with any of these people. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks and backed up a few steps, turning to face a lovely brunette with raised brows. She was very pretty, and for some reason she actually caught his attention. “You,” he spoke up, his tone demanding. “What’s your name?”

Manny roamed the streets of Pansaw, his hands in his pockets as he hummed a care-free tune to himself. He was in a reasonably good mood today. He’d gotten all his Nephilim duties of payments, kidnapping, and drug deals done, so he had granted himself the rest of the day to enjoy himself. Although, that was rather short-lived when one mind’s very familiar sounding thoughts entered his head. It took him a moment until he properly recognized them as that Hayden woman’s thoughts...the annoying human who had gotten away from him last week. He scowled briefly at the memory, his jaw tensing in irritation. He’d never lost a piece of the Nephilim’s property before until her.

It wasn’t long until he pinpointed her location, which was only a few hundred feet away from him across the street. Quickly, the psionic crossed over, picking up the pace in his walk until he was behind her. “There you are, kitten,” he spoke up to grab her attention, a smirk pulling at his lips. “And here I thought I lost you for good. Did you miss me?” 

Who knew that just leaving the C.A.R.M.A base to grab some dinner would result in such a mess? It was expected, since the power negation field last month had brought on angry Metas, and protests, and even riots in response. But geez, a whole damn month? Even Manny was getting sick of it. It’d been a few days of Metas not having their powers, it wasn’t not like C.A.R.M.A went out and killed five hundred of them for no reason. It wasn’t long on his walk with Hayden to find something to eat that a group of young Metas that all had to be in their twenties at least, recognized Hayden. 

“Hey, isn’t that the head of C.A.R.M.A’s research program?” One of the six kids spoke up, pointing towards them. It caught Manny’s attention, and instinctively his hand went to Hayden’s wrist in case he needed to pull her away. “Yeah....wait, yeah, that is! Let’s get her!” another one declared.

And that was how it all started. A fireball was thrown in their direction, and the psionic quickly moved in front of Hayden, his hand still holding her wrist for the moment while his free one projected an energy forcefield to protect the both of them from the fiery blast. “Well, so much for a nice evening, huh?” he said to the scientist with a wry smirk. 

Ever since he’d run into Hope in her guise as Mirror of the Hero Squad, Aleister’s mind had been abuzz with possibilities.  The fact that she could still copy abilities from those that had been “cured” meant that those abilities weren’t completely gone… just dormant.  So the “cure”, such as it was, didn't completely change the person's genetic code, just turned it off.  This was a new direction to attack this cure than they had been doing.  All of this was going through his mind as he walked through the halls of C.A.R.M.A, a datapad in one hand and a pair of data gloves on his hands. 

His aimless wandering was a common occurrence at C.A.R.M.A., even back in his original time.  Though this time however, his walking wasn't aimless.  He was taking the very familiar route from his lab to Hayden's office.  With his mind on his revelations, he didn't even bother to knock and wait for her to answer.  Pushing the door open in his rush, Aleister looked up in a hurry.  "We've been going about this entirely wrong way.  I know how to beat the cure."