United Nations Recovery Base

Greenland Iceshelf

"Gather round, children as I tell you a tale." Lady El interrupted her lover. "Is there a princess in this tale?" She asked.

"Ye,s there is. But if you keep interrupting you won't find out what happens." He admonished her. He hugged her tighter to show that he loved her but she also needed to stop teasing if she wanted to hear his tale.

She wiggled over his body to get more comfortable and to make sure that he came out alright from the coma she left him in when she joined Richard and his crew.

"This tale starts one fine morning..." He began again.

"Which morning?" Asked Yuri.

"Yuri!" Clive warned.

"What? Is too much to ask which morning?" He smirked. He loved Clive's stories, but he loved needling his friend even more.

"It was this morning." Clive gritted his teeth. This pair had perfected this act long ago.

"Da. This morning...we'll go on."

Dr. Clive Thomas sighed, this will not do.

"Xerys from the party."

{Party formed.}

"Add Eleanore Hastings..."

{Unable to comply...}

"Why not?" Curious he thought.

"Richard McLean..."

{Unable to comply...}

"El explain?" You had to be firm with El.

"Ask him." She pointed at Joe.

"Very well. I am Dr. Clive Thomas, and who might you be? Man who doesn't exist." Clive had been able to scan everyone in the room. Even the Cyborg.

"Joe Rene Wilder. I am. Therefore I exit." He joked.

"Not to my senses you don't. I can sense every single lifeform in a 100 km area. Except for you. Care to explain?" Clive found a mystery. He loved mysteries.

"Oh. A moment please..." Joe checked with Scarlett and with her help they found Clive's power set.

[Clive Thomas is User 9. He's an Alpha level user. A mental adept.The first ability is an evolved brain. The second Alpha ability is mental energy manipulation. He also has two Gamma level abilities. Telekinesis and mental constructs.]

[[Thank you, Scarlett. What do I need to change to show up on his mental radar?]]

Scarlett was quick to help him with the changes necessary to appear on the mental landscape.

"How's that Dr. Thomas?" Joe asked.

"That is absolutely the scariest thing that I have encountered since this morning." This Joe kept adding to his miraculous accomplishments. "I can now see you. We're going to discuss this soon. Why can't I add these fine people to my party?"

"That's probably due to the private Party network we're on. How about I just add you?" Joe sent the invite anyway. If Dr. Thomas wanted to join he could, and if he wanted to reject, that too could be an option.

"Thank you for the invite." He accepted. After a quick check through the features he couldn't see the difference. He asked, "What's different? I can't tell."

"I know." Lady El giggled. "This network has access to the Galactic Federation skills database."

"That's certainly something I could not even think to check for. The skills and abilities list is only available when it's time to choose either a skill or an ability." He wondered just how that came about. So he asked, "how did you access this exalted list?"

"Are you ready for the answer darling?" He could see that his love was just brimming with mischief today.

"Very well. Hit me." He braced himself.

Yuri got up to hit him. Clive sighed, "sit down Yuri." He knew how the Russian prankster thought.

Yuri shrugged his shoulders. There would be other occasions when Clive's guard was down.

"You guys are a laugh riot." Joe smiled. They were mildly amusing.

"Well?" He looked at El.

"He's...A... Xerys System sys-admin." She spread her hands apart, Tadddaa! Surprised?"

"Absolutely. How did this come about?" He asked.

"Not sure myself. He hasn't really said." The man was immune to every trick she tried. "Enough, it's your turn. You promised a story."

"So I did. You better sit down for this one." He went back to bed and Lady Eleanore climbed back and snuggled into his chest.

"This is a story about a man named Johan Schmidt..." as the story began the group was transported to the morning. When the artifact was pulled from the bottom of the icy ocean and an assault dropped on the base from the cloudy skies.