'Take a look at this.' Hughes called over. 'I think we have an... unregistrated... magician.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAo7i0r84BUv
The members of Floor Twelve Minus looked over at the computer screen.730Please respect copyright.PENANAgFrY5mfaQu
...And on the eight o clock news, we have a shocking case involving Eclipse Equipment where a harness used for highrise cleaning broke. The man involved, Winston Jones, was not injured, but is filing a lawsuit against the company. Eyewitness accounts say he was extremely lucky to have landed in the crane, saying that it was as if he was launched upward to safety...730Please respect copyright.PENANA4Jibq8M4QH
'I don't know how I survived. It must have been a miracle.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAH2yl542Y9K
'You don't think that - '730Please respect copyright.PENANA3gOh8AdW2L
'I do think.' Hughes rested his chin on a curled hand.730Please respect copyright.PENANAK0QbK3AD8X
'But telekinesis on a human? At that height? Magic is hardly possible just three floors up, and this must have happened higher than that.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAyDeygPWb1e
'You're right. It's quite an amazing feat. For a normal magician, that is.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAYKYQQ76lll
'You mean...?'730Please respect copyright.PENANA3sYmVXaGJS
'That's right.' Hughes rose from his chair and clapped his hands. 'I think we found our lost High Priestess.'
Christine sunk back into the sofa. What did this all mean?730Please respect copyright.PENANARmo5ZnCFtl
She could do magic, that much was certain. She could make fire, she could move things without touching them.730Please respect copyright.PENANAc7XCi4vKrN
But how? Why her?730Please respect copyright.PENANA7sjwcvdTAB
rrring, rrring, rrring... She picked up the phone. 'Hello?'730Please respect copyright.PENANAPbGkHzJ45i
'We'd like to speak to you.'730Please respect copyright.PENANA1uNDW1IaH5
'I'm sorry, who is this?'730Please respect copyright.PENANAFayHtnvSAJ
'Floor Twelve Minus. We want to ask you about what happened yesterday.' Was this some kind of joke?730Please respect copyright.PENANAPKVEy49nQp
'Look, I don't really have the time right now...' She hung up.730Please respect copyright.PENANAST3sQHIEE1
'We said, we wanted to talk to you.'730Please respect copyright.PENANA1p6DpOzSAh
Christine shrieked and turned around. A middle-aged, roughly shaven man was standing in her living room. He held out his hand.730Please respect copyright.PENANAWYfSHcm94M
'My name is Hughes.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAoUnr9fCPnt
'How did you get in here?' Christine thought through the possibilities. She didn't have anything to arm herself with, apart from...730Please respect copyright.PENANAvmtu6i7N7V
'I unlocked the front door.' He smiled.730Please respect copyright.PENANA3JsNOkD83w
'...How did you get my house keys?'730Please respect copyright.PENANA5Dyt3rCLja
Hughes laughed, a barking roar. 'Who said anything about needing keys?'730Please respect copyright.PENANANPBlYlvxFX
'HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?' Christine yelled, backing into the kitchen.730Please respect copyright.PENANA0KHh4Y9JxN
'I don't know, Christine. Magic?'730Please respect copyright.PENANATg7PyUuKUa
Her face went white. She had lost the only advantage - no doubt this man was more skilled at her at - at whatever it was they could do.730Please respect copyright.PENANAKqrPceWVhL
'So you know about your abilities, then?' He asked, mildly surprised.730Please respect copyright.PENANApvziGSvIOf
'I don't know what you're talking about.' She was trapped in the corner of the room by the sinks. Desperately, she opened the cupboard on the other side of the room with her telekinesis and flung a saucepan at the man.730Please respect copyright.PENANAiBiJZexV87
He deflected it easily. 'You obviously do.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAdq82qMBQ90
The steel pan came flinging back at Christine, and, unprepared, she was knocked unconscious.730Please respect copyright.PENANAuJghrpUfRb
730Please respect copyright.PENANAtk8j0ofnp7
'She doesn't understand the extent of her abilities.' Hughes knew that they couldn't keep Christine captive for long. Whether she knew it or not, she was more powerful than all of Floor Twelve Minus combined. And now that she was physically confined, she would be experimenting with her powers even more.730Please respect copyright.PENANACahGChsphi
'The pressing question is, of course, who her parents are. If there's another family of magicians out there...'730Please respect copyright.PENANAGArF5OQTO7
Hughes turned on the intercom, and watched Christine through the camera in the antechamber. 'I see you're awake now.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAcL4hzrYxcv
'Where am I? Why are you doing this to me? Let me out! Let me out!' She screamed, but her voice cracked at Hughes' laughter.730Please respect copyright.PENANAXMW5vrrfYF
'Christine, we don't want to hurt you. We just need to keep you restrained until you calm down - because we don't want you to hurt us, either.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAkvrRCjkewe
'Who are you?'730Please respect copyright.PENANA4hVnRYsx6q
'I already told you. My name is Hughes. I work for an institution called Floor Twelve Minus. We'd like to recruit you. You'd be in a very respectable position.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAtM24xUxOLk
'Yeah? Is this what you do? Kidnap people and tie them up in metal cables?'730Please respect copyright.PENANA24U8zCp6fE
'Please. We didn't want you burning your way out, and the fiber circuit is complex enough that you shouldn't be able to undo it. It's temporary, just to keep everyone safe while you consider our proposal.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAlJAe8I6BBX
'...So what. You guys are the magic experts or something?'730Please respect copyright.PENANAiG7WKcJDXn
'You could call us that, yes. In fact, we thought we were the only people gifted with such abilities until we found out about you. Which brings me to an important question: who are your parents?'730Please respect copyright.PENANAwaW8ZcOqyv
'Why do you want to know?'730Please respect copyright.PENANAsWzx0dpav8
'Just cooperate, please. We don't want to make you any more uncomfortable than you are now. Who are they?'730Please respect copyright.PENANA5Ygp9gyr8w
'They died in a fire when I was young.'730Please respect copyright.PENANACccisnYtRU
'By your hands? Interesting. But that doesn't answer my question.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAPhdeJcAn7t
'Brian. Brian and Rebecca.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAuQaF7w4aKx
'Rebecca?' Hughes turned off the intercom for a moment. Rebecca? But he had taken their child. He had taken the child, the one he called Xavier. What was it that she said again? You have a child. He had a child. But what if she had more? Surely magic couldn't be passed down that way...730Please respect copyright.PENANAaJk9Z8X0Jk
He turned the intercom back on. 'How old are you, Christine?'730Please respect copyright.PENANATZ2HZM2IEf
'I turned 27 yesterday. Or the day before, I don't know how long you've kept me down here.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAjd9eK1AV38
Shit, Hughes thinks. She really is Xavier's twin... how does that even work?730Please respect copyright.PENANAqU5fgIuuIX
'That's enough. Let's get down to business now. We, Floor Twelve Minus, are interested in people like you... that have abilities. And we perform jobs for people - highly paid jobs, I might add.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAqJ6B65iOsL
'What kind of jobs?' Christine closed her eyes. She could feel herself getting smaller, fingers prying through the individual metal cables surrounding her body, twisting and untwisting, responding to the feedback in the tautness of her confinement. She just needed a few more minutes.730Please respect copyright.PENANAlzGTSByAe5
'Mostly corporate things. Helping out businesses, taking down others. That's where the market is.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAEwUZQ7xGPx
Come on... The fiber system in the cables was far too complex. She couldn't unravel it. 'Espionage?'730Please respect copyright.PENANAcdfnoNyVmC
'That's right. Our next target was actually going to be the very building you work in. Lucky that we found you before we burnt it down.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAdx2IDU6DEs
'WestGo? What's wrong with them?' She isolated a single metal fiber. A tiny, tiny flame, with highly concentrated heat, formed inside the cable, every ounce of energy focused on that fiber.730Please respect copyright.PENANAAWrIqV9PwO
'Nothing. They're a fabulous company. Which is why they need to go, for Knight Finances to be successful.'730Please respect copyright.PENANAy05LefoQ0b
'Okay, I get it. How high is the pay?' A weak point in the fiber melted, breaking the circuit, and she smothered the fire with the rest of the cable. Now it was just a knot - she had made two loose ends. All she needed to do was tug and it would start to unravel.730Please respect copyright.PENANAyKQn9QMvzQ
'A hundredfold of your job at WestGo.' Hughes paused for the effect. 'Are you in?'730Please respect copyright.PENANArnbcy3Yqtl
'No.' Christine said. 'I'm out of here.' At a shocking speed, she navigated the system in the fiber cables and unraveled the metal rope. Feeling it loosen upon her chest, she shook it off and rose from the chair.730Please respect copyright.PENANAXvJNTLnsp0
'Shit, shit, SHIT!' Hughes yelled, as the rest of Floor Twelve Minus sprung into action. 'Don't let her escape!'730Please respect copyright.PENANAcuY7s5RARi
Christine blew the fuse in the camera with a quick flame, then focused on the lock on the steel door. She could sense the lock cylinders gyrating, trying to feel the position that would let the locking pin slide away - click.730Please respect copyright.PENANAOSRjypun4N
Despite it all, she smiled. I'm powerful. They're scared.730Please respect copyright.PENANABXVHph1f4s
The door flung open to the hall of Floor Twelve Minus, where the magicians scrambled around in a panic, setting things on fire and throwing burning objects around the room.730Please respect copyright.PENANA7SSTut90Gj
There's the elevator. My way out.730Please respect copyright.PENANA0KzXIowbtZ
Christine ran across the room, deflecting any flames, chairs, or tables thrown her way.730Please respect copyright.PENANArBriAgNXvn
She felt her feet land on the metal floor of the lift, and she closed the doors with a swipe of her hands, before sending the elevation cables into a spinning frenzy. The sheer velocity of the elevator made her dizzy, but Christine didn't care - she just wanted to get out.730Please respect copyright.PENANAhiWeMWf4CZ
With a jolt, the elevator stopped at the ground floor of a small, unassuming arts and crafts store. The cashier, fully aware of what was going on, flung the glass doors of the shop shut with a glance.730Please respect copyright.PENANAK4Op0cHRNJ
Christine sent the disguised magician flying to the back of the store, and shattered the panes of glass to run out onto the street.730Please respect copyright.PENANAg5IAcXEEOl
I've got to alert people to these madmen.730Please respect copyright.PENANA8FeoGwlLU3
The nearest police station was only a few streets away.