Previously, in Pan #1, 'Leader Of The Pack'...

Pan cringed. “But I should be the one to lead you, guide you all. Protect you.”

“You have Pan. We back you all the way and we’re still alive.”

“But potentially homeless,” Pan argued.

“Then call Dylan. He owes us. He would’ve been dead if we hadn’t have turned up.”

“Yes, that’s right. I’ll-” Pan’s phone interrupted him. It was an unknown number. “Hello?... Ahh, hey Dylan. So you saw the news then?”

--

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Dylan. That was quite a show in Santa Monica.”

“Ahh, hey Dylan. So you saw the news then?”

“Yeah I did. Are you safe?”

“I’m working on it.”

“Can I help with anything?”

“Well I was going to call you and see if there was something you can do.”

“Are you home?”

“My cousins are, with Aunt Belle, their mum. We think that The Purists know where we live so we’re packing up, but I don’t know where we can go.”

“There’ll be a GRAB Team heading to you now and we’ll get you all here to The Facility. I’ll head there now myself and be there for when you arrive. Is that ok?”

“Yeah, thank you Dylan. That’ll be great.” Pan hung up. Dylan shut the laptop he was using to dispatch the GRAB Team from the LA branch and headed for the door.

***

Dylan and some woman were stood waiting on the tarmac as the two helicopters carrying Pan and his family landed. They didn’t move as the whirling propellers died down and the doors opened, allowing them all to get out.

It was night, but it was warm and everyone was exhausted. One of the GRAB Team officers motioned for them to walk towards Dylan and so Pan led the way.

Dylan stuck out his hand when he was close enough.

“Pan. Boys. Good to see you all again.”

“Thanks Dylan. This is my aunt, Belle.” They exchanged pleasantries.

“This is Madam Secretary. She’s in charge of this site and oversees The Enhanced Beings Collective,” Dylan explained.

The Secretary smiled warmly. “Right, come on in. We know it’s late and after the day you’ve had, you must be exhausted. Dylan will take you to our residential complex where you can rest, and we’ll talk more in the morning. Make yourselves comfortable, please.” She nodded to Dylan and walked off.

“If you follow me,” he said. Pan caught up and walked side by side with him.

“I really appreciate this.”

“I know you do, man. Don’t sweat it. You can get some rest and we’ll work out the next steps. Try not to worry.”

“I’m not. Just a bit pissed off about what’s happened. We were doing so well at keeping things quiet.”

“And then you helped me out in LA and it went downhill?”

“Well, no. I shouldn’t have put it like that. We've been... out and done things before. Low level vigilantism, you might say. And admittedly, we have come real close to losing everything before but with you we just went up against the wrong crowd. It’s gutting, but we’d have helped you even if we did know it was The Purists.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Dylan smiled.

“What will happen tomorrow?” Pan asked.

The group had reached the residential quarters and Dylan ushered them in to get settled. Pan waited outside with Dylan. Belle nodded her thanks and followed the boys in to keep some order.

“We’ll talk through what happened yesterday specifically and then look to see what we can do going forward. We could look to get you all registered, but part of that means going through some assessments and checks. Getting registered is the only way to receive complete support from The Collective, otherwise admittedly, there’s not much we can do for you. Especially considering your ages.”

A smile grew across Pan's face. “Well. About that…”

***

Ratchayaphum, Thailand. Eight years ago.

Pan had guessed that something bad had happened. The police had arrived and he could hear the house staff, Piam and Nisarra, crying in his Dad’s office.

He had been told to wait in his own room which he also supposed was a bad sign. Pan rolled a tennis ball between each foot as he sat on his bed, watching the worn illumines green ball hypnotically roll from left to right, then right to left again. He lost track of how long he had been in his room but the nerves and sense of dread continued to build so much that he strode to the window and climbed out of it into the garden.

His room was the other side of the house to his father’s office. Pan walked through the garden, feeling the sun on his skin and the sticky air on his face, a relief from being cooped up in his room.

He swept his black hair out of his eyes and adjusted his blue and white striped tee shirt, padding down the path to his favourite spot by the stream. Pan enjoyed sitting and watching the water rush past on its route. There was always a lot of wildlife which was drawn to the water that he loved to be amongst.

After an unknown passing of time, Pan heard from behind him the crunching of someone coming down the garden path. From their movement, he knew it was his father.

“Pan,” he said softly. Pan turned to face his father.

“Papa?” The old man shuffled closer and lowered himself next to his son.

He was a Thai man in his late sixties, having fathered Pan later in life. He had small round glasses and soft white hair that was kept quite short.

“I have some very sad news I’m afraid, son,” he said in his mother tongue. Pan was bother fluent in Thai and English, as a result of his mother being a white American national.

“Is it why Piam and Nisarra were crying?”

“Yes.”

“And why the police were here?”

“Yes.”

“What is it Papa?”

“Your mother was at work today and she... she very sadly died,” he put a hand on Pan’s narrow back. Pan drew breath and let his eyes fill with tears.

“How?” he whimpered, the tears fully rolling down his cheeks. He watched as his father took off his spectacles and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Tell me, please.”

“It’s not very pleasant Pan,” his father warned.

“Please Papa, I want to know why my Mom is dead.”

“The elephants she worked with,” he started, pausing to consider his words. “Someone spooked them, and they... they ran. Your mother, she… she, the elephants… Well they made her fall down and….” He trailed off, himself fighting back the tears.

“Did the elephants kill Mom?” Pan asked, piecing things together.

His dad nodded, and brought him in for an embrace, holding each other and comforting each other. Life was going to be very different now.

Life was different. Over the next two years, Pan and his father found a new normal. His father continued to work- Pan wasn’t sure what exactly he did but he was told that he worked at a university and that seemed to explain why there were times when he went away. When he did work at home, from a young age he was always told not to disturb him.

As Pan got older, now aged eleven, he had grown to need the housekeepers less and they only came in to look after him on the odd occasion and he began to feel alone. He missed his mother every day. There were reminders of her all over the house still, but it was the way Pan wanted it.

She was an American woman who moved to Thailand to work in animal conservation. Somehow, and it was never fully explained, she had met his father who was a lot older than she was. In fact there was a thirty year age gap. Pan saw more of his mother growing up than his father, and although there was a love for each other, it wasn’t quite the same as the love Pan had for his mother.

A few months after Pan’s twelfth birthday, he sat with his father at the dinner table. A storm rumbled nearby, sounding like it was getting nearer. The rain pounding at the house and the foliage in the garden.

It was just the two of them at this time of night, but as it was most of the time, it was a silent affair.

His father put down his utensils and pushed the plate away from him. He sighed and Pan looked up at him.

“What’s up Papa?”

“Son, I have something to tell you.” He paused for a moment. “There’s no easy way to say this, I’m afraid.”

Anxiety began to grow from within Pan, dread emanating from his chest. “What is it?” he tried to ask, but it came out in a meek whisper, his throat already having gone dry.

“I have cancer, Pan, and I don’t have very long to live,” his father said, leaving the words to hang there so Pan could digest it all.

“How long do you have?” Pan asked after a short while.

“I’m not sure. Weeks. The doctors said it has been in me for a long time and there is nothing they can do about it.”

Pan was dumbfounded. It was like his whole world had exploded, leaving him to watch.

“What will happen to me?”

“You have an aunt in America you will be going to live with.”

“An aunt? Who?”

“Belle Tang Loelapanaphol. She’s my younger sister. She has seven children so you will have cousins to play with.”

“I don’t want cousins to play with. I want to live here with you Papa.” His father put his hand onto Pan’s and squeezed it gently.

“I’d love that too, son. I really would, but it won’t happen.”

Pan inhaled sharply, in part to suppress the urge to bawl his eyes out crying but also in part, acutely aware that his father was showing more affection than he had done at least in the three years since his mother died.

“I just want you to live forever Papa, and I want to live with you forever,” and that suppressed urge to cry his eyes out could not be held onto any longer.

His dad pulled him in for a hug, Pan’s words echoing in his mind. Perhaps he himself couldn’t live forever, but his son could. It was then that he had the idea.

The next day was a sombre one. Pan decided to stay in his room and lose himself in his books. The house staff would check in and bring him in snacks, but they respected his want for space.

His father had the same idea, but not out of melancholy. As his office doors were closed, the staff knew better than to check in and interrupt.

He was working hard, inspired by what Pan had said last night. In his work, Pan’s father was a professor in Ancient Civilisations and he remembered the work him and his team carried out secretly in the seventies. Work on 'The Elixir of Life'. This could be the answer to Pan living forever!

He was almost giddy at the thought. In the seventies, they came extremely close in their research, with their recreations of the elixir, but one day it was suddenly and abruptly shut down by the military and forgotten about.

Life carried on and new research projects commenced. But now, there was a chance that he succeed for his son. It’s what he wanted after all.

The plan had to happen at midnight. A time said to be crucial as it signals a new day and ultimately a new milestone in a person’s life, an indication of aging. They’re one day older and for the process of aging to be stopped, it had to happen at the strike of a new day.

***

“So how did he do it?” Dylan was enthralled.

It was 1am and Pan and Dylan had stayed up talking while the others rested. Really, that’s what they should be doing themselves.

“Aunt Belle never said. She was just able to tell me what was in his journals.”

“Wow… That’s crazy, Pan. And you don’t remember any of this?”

“I remember life carrying on as normal. Dad did what he did and I simply have no idea at all, so I just carried on being a regular twelve year old boy. Dad’s anticipated weeks left to live turned out to be just a few days. He went peacefully in his sleep and as expected, I was sent to America soon after. I had to fly by myself. I was terrified.”

***

Pan sat and waited for his suitcase to appear on the conveyor belt. He watched as his flight neighbour who had sat next to him pick up her case, and disappear off. It wasn’t long after when he spotted his lime green coloured hard case come into view. It was exciting. He’d never been abroad or to an airport before. But this was no vacation. Nothing to return to.

He followed the signs for ARRIVALS and looked for the aunt he had only been shown in photographs.

It was a sign with his name PANAT CHEN-SMITH that he saw first and headed for it. Holding the sign was his aunt who was stood with another boy. He wasn’t sure which of the seven cousins he was.

“Pan! My dear boy! Welcome to Los Angeles! It’s so good to see you. I’m Belle and this is Chai Son, my eldest boy. The others are very excited to meet you!” She affectionately clasped her hands around his face and gave him a big welcome kiss, a sign of affection he hadn’t experienced since his mom had died. “Are you hungry? Tired?” she asked.

“Hungry. I fell asleep on the plane,” he answered shyly.

“Mom can we get a McDonalds? Pan have you ever had one?” Chai Son asked eagerly.

“No, I’ve not.”

“Of course he hasn’t! He wouldn’t have a frame like that eating fast food. We’ll grab a little one and get you home. Chai, take his bag.”

***

“So how long was it before everything began to come out about your new abilities?” Dylan asked next.

“Well, it was meant to be my fourteenth birthday. I’d been worried about how I was growing but it really dawned on me that I hadn’t developed or changed since I was twelve. Puberty hadn’t taken its toll on me and when comparing with how my cousins had grown and were growing, I knew something was wrong.”

“My cousins were fine about it, like they didn’t tease me or make me feel like I wasn’t the same, but it got to a point where Gan and Lek, who were actually twelve, looked just like me, and Chai Son who is fourteen like me in age, looked more like a fourteen year old should. Aunt Belle knew why of course, but she kept palming me off but it must’ve been getting harder to keep quiet. Anyway, it was one day in the locker room after PE, a time where I was at my most anxious. We were showering and I over heard some boys laughing about me. They came over like proud apes displaying themselves. Mocking me and showboating. The main jerk pushed me over and I slipped on the floor.”

“Then what happened?”

“I was livid. Embarrassed, but equally just as mad. I got up and pushed him back and he just, like flew back into a locker and it dented so much. More than it should have done. The boys were stunned and the lad who I pushed back started crying. ‘Pick on someone your own size’ I yelled but then coach came in and told us all to get dressed and head to the principal’s office.”

“I bet Aunt Belle was mad.”

“She acted it in school, but back home she blamed herself. Then she sat down and explained it all to me.”

***

“Pan, I’ve not been completely honest with you.”

“What is it? Is it about today?”

“Yes, really it is. See, before your father died he gave you something.”

“I don’t remember that. Was it a gift?”

Belle shifted. Some might have called it a gift, but she thought some would call it a curse.

“Um… yes. He gave you something, but he did it so that you wouldn’t know about it.”

“Did? Did what?”

“Part of your father’s work was studying and teaching Ancient Civilisations and many decades ago he worked on a project to create a potion that gives someone the ability to live forever.” She let that word hand in the air a little, as Pan processed what he was being told. After a moment of realisation, his eyes widened.

“B-Belle,” he stammered. “Am I… will I… Did he give it to me?”

She nodded. “Pan, a few days before he died he gave you the Elixir of Life and yes, you will now live with the gift of eternal youth.”

“As a fucking twelve year old?!” Pan shouted, standing up abruptly. Belle jumped up too. “How long have you known?!”

“He told me what he did only after it happened, Pan, when we were arranging your move,” she protested.

“I can’t believe it. Did you not think at some point it was going to be obvious? So I’m stuck in a twelve year olds body while my cousins grow up and age around me?” Pan flipped a chair over in anger. “What was he thinking?” he seethed, tears streaming down his face.

Belle though it best to not answer in her brother’s defence. Was there a defence for what he did? He was doing it out of love for his son and had the best intentions.

“There’s something else,” Belle started, pausing as Chai Son and Gan hurriedly appeared to see what the commotion was.

“What?!” Pan snapped, expectantly looking at his aunt, but his gaze shifted to the boys who had a look of knowing on their faces.

“You, you have... you possess certain enhancements too. Things you can do beyond pure human possibility,” she stuttered, cautious of her nephew’s reaction.

“Seriously? Is this a joke? I think I would know if I had enhancements!” he protested. It was true. His life had been normal to the point of boring.

“Pan, think about what you did to that jabroni in the locker room,” piped up Chai Son, who was also in that PE group in the locker room. “That end locker completely caved in. You did that.”

Pan remembered. He also remembered everyone’s and his own shock. “But why didn’t I know about it? Why have I not known about this sooner?”

“Your father didn’t want you to harness your strengths. But he was like you Pan too. As was his father and his father. And your cousins here. It runs genetically through the males in the family.” Pan gawped at his cousins.

“Do they know wh-what they can do?” The boys nodded and then simultaneously floated into the air, demonstrating their ability to fly. Pan wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. He’d been able to do it his whole life and no one had told him.

The boys moved around Pan, suspended in the air and came to land beside him.

“I can do that?” he asked them in awe.

“With time, yeah,” said Chai Son. “Takes the edge off things, I guess?”

Pan mindlessly nodded, taking all of it in. His anger had drained, but it would undoubtedly resurface again.

***

“So you learnt to fly?”

“Yeah, pretty much. One broken leg and a collar bone later,” laughed Pan. “So yeah, and we’re now here today. I’ve mastered the art of flying amongst other things and have come to live with the fact that I will remain the size of a twelve year old.”

“Shit bro. So how old are you, like technically?”

“I’m seventeen now.”

“Wow... I really cannot imagine what it must be like. Oh man, all the things you won’t be able to do.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ve not let my physical appearance stop me from doing anything.”

“But can you even reach the pedals in a car though?” teased Dylan.

“Who needs wheels when you can fly?"