Somewhere in South Africa. 2020.

“Did you see the memo that went out Terri?”

“Kent, I was the person who wrote it,” she replied, rolling her eyes. Terri was eating her lunch supposedly alone in the quiet cafeteria when Kent Miller joined her with his tray.

“I suppose you’re going to be heavily involved in tomorrow’s visit then?”

“If by ‘heavily involved’ you mean distributing hard hats and print outs whilst doing my best “Nin hao”, then yes. Yes I will.” Kent winced. He could see the sarcasm drip off her words. “Still,” she continued, “I’ve got a month and a bit left here before I can go home to Seattle. Man, do I miss SNL and a decent mac ‘n’ cheese!”

“I’m sorry you haven’t been able to get out of this year what you wanted,” Kent said before biting into his sandwich.

He was referring to Terri’s placement year from university, working at the Theophrastus Foundation mining facility in South Africa with hopes of actually working with the rocks and minerals found in the terrain. Instead she found herself so far removed from the research team she was promised, being the PA to the site manager. The university were sympathetic and offered her the full credits for the year but it didn’t make up for the lack of experiences she should have gained. Kent Miller was at the Theophrastus Foundation having done his placement four years ago and was now a paid employer.

“Depending on how tomorrow goes, who knows if you will even be here in a month’s time!”

“Oh don’t worry, they won’t get rid of me. I’m far too good looking,” he said with a wink.

“That’s why I heard you would be the first to go. You’re too distracting for all the uggos!” she joked back. “But seriously, word is that the buy out bid will mean cuts to departments, not just individuals. Science and Research Team will go. This cafeteria will reduce its hours down,” Terri explained.

She shouldn’t really be giving too much information away, but what the heck? she thought. It was no surprise to Kent anyway- he was in the Science and Research Team and rumours around the buyout and their fate as a result were already spreading through the department.

“You know it still angers me,” Kent began. “That they would dare do that to the cafeteria. What am I going to do for lunch on a Saturday now?” They both laughed. She liked him. But more to the point, she wanted to be him and doing his job. “Who knows though? They might choose not to buy the Foundation after all,” suggested Kent, leaning forward as if he was sharing a secret.

“Naah, I think the Chinese are really keen. And the board here I think will accept less if need be. There’d have to be a real disaster to stop the sale going through.”

Kent looked at her. “Aah, I see. Sounds pretty certain then.”

***

The next day, with the visit underway, the atmosphere was a mix of apprehension and hope. The Foundation, named after the Greek scholar whose early work was a launchpad for the science of mineralogy and ultimately geology, were suffering financial difficulty and could no longer afford to run in the same way. This had been the case for the last few years but Covid-19 was the final straw. With help from the prospective Chinese buyout, they would be able to continue their work- just at the expense of the science and research programme inspired by the Foundation’s namesake. Instead, it would just look to mine solely for profit. A blow for those who care and have worked so hard.

Terri was accompanying her employer, Mr Barry Beckstock (the manager of the site) and the six Chinese board members of the take-over company, on the tour of the site. They were looking in particular at how the for-profit side of the Foundation worked. They earlier breezed through the Science and Research Team, much to Kent’s overt disappointment, and the cafeteria- which probably would have been to Kent’s disappointment too. Now, they were underground and in the noisy and busy cave system.

Hundreds of people worked below in the main cave and the tour group watched from above on metallic walkways. Below, the workers looked like ants, yellow hard hat wearing ants, and the visitors were lapping it up, clearly inspired by the scale of the workforce, and the potential.

“Shall we continue?” Barry Beckstock asked, and waited for it to be translated.

As the group moved on, Terri trailed at the back as something caught her eye. Below, in amongst the yellow hats, was a rogue green hat heading for the exit. The green hats were worn by those in the Science and Research Team. She supposed it wasn’t completely uncommon for some of the different departments to be in the caves at different times. The green was more noticeable today. Terri realised she had lagged behind, so hurried to catch up, her footsteps clanging on the metal path.

An explosion roared from below somewhere, the echo and reverberations making it difficult to know its epicentre. Smoke and dust billowed out from the tunnel it came from.

And then another explosion. This time from a different tunnel.

The workers below started shouting and running and Barry was very close to joining them. He had gone very pale and looked out of his depth, but did his best to regain control of himself in front of the prospective buyers, who were now shouting amongst themselves.

Another explosion sounded, this time not as far away, and the cavernous ceiling above them showered dust onto their heads and shoulders.

“This way, quick!” Terri yelled and beckoned, wanting to usher them back the way they came.

Another explosion. A louder and closer one.

It knocked the tour group over, now on the swaying metal path. They had to get off quick.

A fifth explosion proved to be the worst, at least for Terri’s tour group. The cave wall opposite them erupted out sideways, sending large chunks of rocks, minerals and dust into them and the metal gang way which didn’t stand a chance. Terri, her boss and the once keen Chinese buyers were thrown off the path and down towards an inevitable death.

***

Manhattan, New York City. 2022.

“Madam Secretary, I don’t know what to tell you. He’s stronger than you thought. Stronger than I thought. I’m really sorry!” Terri shouted down her phone to compete with the noise of the circling helicopters above.

“Please Terri, don’t worry. People like Leonard Patricks will always want a slice of the pie- he’ll be back and next time you’ll get him. Besides, stealing the amount of money he did is going to be near impossible to spend without it getting flagged.” Terri exhaled loudly and took a moment to look around her.

Her tête-a-tête with Leonard caused a lot of damage around the America’s Choice Bank. Parts of building laid on the ground, street furniture was strewn around and innocent vehicles were wrecked. And she didn’t even get her guy.

“Go home and rest. We’ll review your training if you like and see how we can harness your strengths better for next time. You did well Terri,” Madam Secretary said, and they ended the call.

Terri sat in her apartment two days later, clean and rested and watching the news report her attempt at foiling the bank robbery. She normally enjoyed seeing herself on the news- the novelty hadn’t worn off yet. But this time she had no satisfaction.

A knock on the door turned her attention away from the TV. How did they get into the building? She padded over to the door and peeped through the spy hole. She immediately opened the door on recognising the visitor.

“Kent Miller?! What on earth are you doing here?”

“Terri, it’s really you! Can I come in?” he asked.

“Yes, sure! Do! I’m j-just so surprised to see you,” she stammered, closing the door behind him, whilst he checked the apartment out. “Excuse the mess. Drink?”

“No, thank you. Well I just go back from Thailand and then yesterday I saw you on the news kicking ass in New York. That’s new right? I just had to come and see you, and I remembered that you lived in Seattle,” he explained.

Terri was half impressed and half weirded at the lengths he went to find her. “Wow, Seattle is quite a big place, Kent. Not that I’m complaining. It’s good to see you. It’s been…” she tried to remember and then it came to her, “two years. Gee, it’s not really as long as it feels.” She motioned Kent over to the sofas.

“I have my contacts,” he laughed, “but I’d always meant to find you, after you know, South Africa. But then Thailand came up. But look at you though! And what can you do!!”

Terri blushed. Over the last two years she had worked long and hard at getting to deal with what she can do, and the publicity around it. Having to explain it again to someone again was a bit embarrassing.

“Unfortunately, a side effect of what happened in South Africa. So many people died, and yet I lived. And suddenly I was in a high tech facility in America… and I’m different.”

“So hang on, this was as a result of the accident?”

“Well I’d hardly call it an accident, Kent. Multiple explosions don’t just happen in a mine with no accidents in four hundred and seventy eight days.”

“Well yeah, of course. I know, but I just meant, I just was asking if you didn’t already have those abilities.”

“Nope, I remember coming to at the bottom of the cave and I had pushed something off from me, and when I looked at it, it was a boulder the size of a pickup. But I pushed it like it was a duvet. Real light it was. Then I passed out and bam I’m back in the States,” she explained.

Kent was impressed. “Well bloody hell. You are very welcome, then I guess!” he laughed.

Terri leaned back, her face blinked into a vision of confusion. “What?” was all she managed to ask, letting out a nervous laugh. Where was this going?

“You’re welcome! For the ‘powers’,” Kent air-quoted the word ‘powers’ and was beaming proudly.

He could see Terri’s face, so continued. “That explosion chain reaction was me. Now, don’t get carried away, I did it to save the mine from being bought, and that worked! And then it went and gave you these amazing powers!” He was being really enthusiastic about what he had done but he could tell it wasn’t rubbing off on his old friend. “It’s a good thing, right?” He asked nervously.

Terri jumped up and stormed over to the window. “A GOOD THING?!” she yelled. “Fifty seven people died that day, and the Chinese were so scared off, they didn’t buy it and the whole Foundation went completely bust ANYWAY!”

“B-b-but I didn’t mean for people to die, I j-”

“Ohhhhhh well that’s ok then if you didn’t MEAN for those people to die! And that’s not before I think about what you did to me!”

“You’re alive Terri and I’m so happy you are and happy for who you have become!”

“Are you?! I have fourteen clusters of quartz embedded into my body!” she pulled back her hair to show her neck which had a four centimetre wide cluster just under her ear, and then her left sleeve to show her forearm where a slightly wider cluster was fused into her. Kent looked in amazement. The other quartz clusters were spread across her torso and on her legs.

“And I can now physically alter my atomic and cellular structure to that of rock!” She approached him seething and growling her last few words. To someone else, all that might sound cool, but not if you have to live with it yourself. Kent got up, scared and regretting confessing to the explosions that altered his friend so much.

“And mentally, I’m just as messed up. I wake up most mornings wanting to die, wishing I had been number fifty eight.”

Kent looked at her, unsure of what to say. “I’m… I’m sorry Terri. So, so sorry.” It turned out, that that was the worst thing he could say and Terri snapped, lunging forward with her hand around his neck.

In her rage and disbelief she could feel her grip hardening. Not just her grip, but her entire being transforming to the hardest of rocks. Kent tried to bat her off but she was now a statue, in state and in mindset. She was squeezing the life out of him. His eyes were wide, his face purple and bulging. Dying.

Terri let go, staggering back in fear at what she had almost done. Kent gasped and gagged for air, tears streaming down his face. Tears streaming down hers. Then Terri considered her feelings. And reflected on her strengths, and she calmed. Her cells transformed back to a human state. This wasn’t her. She was stronger than this. She was a symbol of good now and of what is right in the world.

She looked at her former friend and said with a surprise calmness, “You better leave right now and go straight to the nearest police station and confess to your crimes. And if you don’t, I will make it my life’s mission to track you down. Am I clear?”

“C-c-crystal,” Kent stuttered and ran straight for the door. Terri fell to the her knees and sobbed, her crystals throbbing.

***

The Facility. Lebanon, Kansas. 2025.

Terri stormed down the pristine white corridor straight towards Madam Secretary’s office. The internal walls were mostly glass and Terri could see the Secretary sitting at her desk. And she could see Terri approaching and she knew exactly why. Terri didn’t bother to knock, pushing the glass doors open and marching to the desk.

“Are you actually kidding me, Vedhika?!”

No one ever called Madam Secretary by her given name. It was always by title. Even when you were talking trash about her behind her back, it was never Vedhika. But Terri was pissed off and she didn’t care. Which is why the Secretary didn’t call her up on it.

“Terri, look-”

“No, you look. I’ve been by your side now for four years doing pretty much anything you ask. And I don’t mind. I can do things other people can’t so I can do good and I don’t ask for much in return. So when you make some fresh faced human elastic band our G7 representative and not me, I’m asking myself, what is this all for?!” Terri was leaning over on the desk, glaring down at her supervisor. “And you don’t even tell me yourself. I have to find out from him. He’s been here all of five minutes!”

“Look Terri,” she repeated calmly but assertively and not moving from her seat. “You’re right. You do do anything I ask of you and you have been incredibly loyal to The Collective. And for that I am grateful. And as much as you may not feel like believing me right now, I need you here more on home soil, not jetting off around the world. Brad has only been here for five minutes, not literally sure, but he’s very capable at what he does and how he does it. He’s a team player…” Terri started to protest, thinking the boss didn’t think of her as a team player, but the Secretary silenced her with a hand and continued. “He’s a team player, but not a leader. You are a leader, Terri. And I need someone to have America’s back at home whilst he is out galivanting internationally. I want you here when we take on new Enhanceds into the programme and I need them to see you and feel like they have a place in The Collective.” Terri dropped into the armchair behind her, her rage disappearing and replaced with a warmth she wasn’t expecting.

“You’re my rock, Terri.” Terri burst out laughing, the tension in the room clearing. “I know it’s disappointing and I regret you finding out the way you did. I told him that I was going to be telling you personally. Buy you’re amazing and don’t think that I don’t know or see that.” Vedhika smiled warmly at her.

“Thanks Ma’am,” Terri said, using the correct way to address the boss. “I’m sorry for calling you Vedhika.”

“It’s alright. I’ve forgotten about it already. Just don’t do it again,” she winked. Terri got up. “By the way Terri, I’ve never seen you like that in person. You’re usually so…” She looked for the right words, clicking her fingers as she did, but Terri finished her sentence.

“… calm under pressure, Ma’am?”

Coming up in the final issue of the Fons et Origio storyline, Agwé #2, ‘Strangers When We Meet’,

Kimona, the triplets and Do’Lânqwa are introduced to The Enhanced Beings Collective!