“You're not gonna spend forever in there are you?” Anna's step mother asked, gently knocking on the bathroom door. “You'll be late if you stay any longer.”

“Sorry Claire, I'd be out in a jiffy,” Anna replied. The older woman shouted something as she went back to the kitchen downstairs, but Anna could not hear her because of her very disturbed mind. Slowly, she turned her attention back to the mirror in the center of the bathroom where she was.

“Okay, let's try this again.” As she spoke the words, she placed her hands on the mirror trying to concentrate.

In, out, in, out, her breaths went and at the third exhale, the pen she had placed on the sink earlier began to vibrate. It rose slowly, moving closer to her face.

Yes! She was doing it. It wasn't heavy compared to the trashcan she threw or the door she pulled down that night but it still felt difficult to lift. It made her wonder how she pulled it off that night. Perhaps, it had something to do with adrenaline? She didn't know. All she knew was that if it wasn't reflexively, using her powers always required a lot of effort. And to be honest, it made Anna dread what Prince would have done to her that night if Duncan hadn't come to her rescue.

This wasn't practice though. Anna wasn't trying to get better at using her powers or anything like that. After all, it'd been over a week since Prince attacked her. If the mindman still wanted to kill her, he would have tried something by now. She had been more of a predator's lucky meal than a target that night. What she was doing (or trying to) here was more of an experiment. Since Anna had gotten her powers, nothing had changed. She still looked normal (as much as her nearly bone white skin could pass off as normal) but last night something had changed. It was about twelve o'clock in the night, she had gotten up to use the bathroom. When she used her powers to reflexively open the door, Anna for some reason looked at the mirror and when she did, rather than see herself, she saw someone else. A woman clad in armour everywhere except for her face with literally black eyes that seemed to glow was staring back at her.

As much as it was terrifying, it irked Anna's curiosity as well and for good reasons too. For starters, the woman looked eerily familiar. Almost like Anna had seen her somewhere before. At first, she thought it was simply because she had seen Prince's eyes glow blue and that seeing something similar happen again made her feel that way. She soon dismissed the thought when she figured the armoured woman was also the warrior she'd been dreaming about. The second reason was quite obvious: her eyes glowed when she involuntary used her powers last night. That was basically how they worked whenever she was around people. If there was a pattern to this like Anna thought, it meant she could be having a simple conversation with anyone or be in a crowd and she'd begin looking like Pilgrim in Into The Badlands. That was the last thing she wanted.

Damn. Anna wished she knew more about this stuff. Was it typical for Mindmen to dream about people whom they knew nothing about and feel hundred percent attached to them or was she simply going crazy? And what on earth did glowing eyes mean? She really wanted answers and it didn't seem like she was going to get any soon.

Unless she decided to take matters into her own hands and find out for herself. And that was exactly what Anna intended to do. Seize control of her life and figure this out somehow. Sure this was uncharted territory for her but that didn't mean she couldn't navigate on the safe side. She just had to call back the image from last night. How hard could that be?

Well it was hard enough that nothing actually happened. Anna just stared at her reflection with nothing changing. There wasn't any armoured woman or anything. Just normal Anna. “This isn't working,” she said to herself disappointed.

Rather than try again which would take time and eventually make her step mom call her again, Anna adjusted her hair and walked out of the bathroom. The way her house was, her parents room, her room and the bathroom were upstairs. Her parent's room being the first (or left if viewed from the stairs), her room in the middle and the bathroom on the right or nearly opposite her room. This suddenly became important because as she came out and walked towards her room, Anna finally noticed from its half open door how unkept the room she called hers was: clothes everywhere, food raps and other junk lying around, her bed unmade. Like every other teenager her room tended to get messy but this was worse than normal. If she wanted everyone to buy the "normal Anna" act, she really needed to fix that. That also meant she couldn't afford to look odd at school. She was doing her best in that aspect as she wore a different hoodie with blues jeans and sneakers today. Not her usual high social media class type of clothing but better than what she'd been putting on recently.

She went into her room, worked her backpack, took her gym bag, shut the door and went down the stairs to the dining area. There she saw her step mother sitting down, legs crossed, as she had finished eating her plate of pancakes she had been making earlier this morning. The blonde woman was wearing a royal blue pantsuit obviously dressed to go to work. Anna was the reason she hadn't gone and the somewhat stern look on her face explained why.

“Sorry Claire,” Anna apologized. “My hair was a little messed up. You know me, slight mistake and I look all terrible.”

And like that, the woman's look softened. Empathy weren't part of the powers she had but the one year Anna had known Claire was enough for her to know that the woman was a softy. She probably spent long minutes putting on the look she had on her face earlier.

“It looks wonderful,” The older woman commented. Claire never understood why Anna was so conscious about her hair or her skin. She was beautiful, really beautiful. Most people thought it was because the girl was a mini celebrity and model but she felt differently.

“Thanks,” Anna replied dropping the big green bag she had been carrying beside her. Smiling as she sat down to eat her own plate of pancakes and scrambled eggs, she asked, “Something big happening at the office today?”

“Huh?” Claire replied giving a confused look.

“The pantsuit, the hair, the makeup. You look prettier than the average Tuesday Claire.”

“Oh, thanks. Uh, yeah, your dad's taking me out for lunch today.”

“Nice, at least one of us is getting the attention. He didn't come home last night did he?”

“No, he didn't. You know he would be here if he could right?” Shifting closer to Anna, she placed her hand on girl's and squeezed gently. “He loves you Anna. Very, very much.”

You don't know that Claire, you're just saying that to make me feel better. Anna simply nodded a response.

She didn't know why she felt bad now all of a sudden. He'd been this way pretty much since her mom died: distant, physically and emotionally. When her mom had just died, Anna thought she was unwanted because she reminded him of her or something. Later on, it dawned on her that he was that way because he just didn't care. He never treated her like he loved her. She didn't know what but something about her made him believe she could deal with it. All he did was made sure she never lacked what she needed physically. Other than that, the man was hardly in her life, he was either on one mayoral trip or the other. Anna pitied Claire sometimes. She was glad the woman was in her life (best step mother she could ask for) but thinking Claire never felt sad, lonely and unhappy about her marriage was being naive.

Pride of Redstone City, Shit husband and father of his home.

Quickly but in a manner that showed she appreciated the contact, Anna removed her hands from under the woman's and returned it to her plate. She was glad (and sincerely quite surprised) that her powers had not spiked yet. She didn't want emotion or physical contact to ruin things.

If her actions affected Claire in any way, the woman didn't show it. “He's gonna be home tonight, I promise.” As she said that, she got up and walked out of the dinning area to get her bag. “Oh and by the way, I was in your room earlier this morning. Smelled like a sewer rat lived in there.”

Anna blushed a little before replying. “I'm, uh, I'm gonna fix that.”

“That'd be nice.” Picking her bag, the woman asked, “Want me to drop you off at school? The bus must have passed by by now. I've still got time, if you want me to, I could drop you off.”

“Yeah, I'd like that,” Anna replied smiling at Claire. Afterwards, she got up and headed to the sink with her plates. She originally intended to ask Claire to drop her off at school. It was the best possible solution. Her powers around one person may not have surfaced but that didn't mean it wouldn't if she was in a bus full of noisy persons or walking down the streets. Staying home to avoid being with people would bring attention from Claire, Sarah and probably her father. She didn't want that either.

Once she was through, she took her gym bag and came out of the house. Claire had already gotten out of the house and was getting the car out of the garage. Anna got into the vehicle and they drove to school.

Soon they got of the streets and then onto the roads leading to school. Henson High School wasn't too far from home but the drive felt like it took hours. It was probably because Anna was very much conscious of herself. There was hardly chatter between her and her step mother even though Claire tried to make conversation throughout the drive. Anna only made simple replies and looked downwards most of the time.

She really needed to fix this.

Henson High School hadn't quite started lectures by the time they got there, in fact, they got there quite early as they arrived almost the same time with the bus. It was still noisy with students moving about and talking with one another. From the parking lot, Anna could see the principal, Mrs Henson outside addressing some senior students and teachers. Wishing Claire a great day, Anna got down and headed into the three storey school building.

Noise. So much noise. She really didn't know how she could survive the entire day without her powers spiking and possibly turning her into the woman from the other night.

For the hundredth time in the last few days, Anna was really grateful for hoodies.

■

It was about ten minutes past two. School hadn't quite ended yet but Anna didn't have classes anymore. Not that she was free though, it was Tuesday, Anna had intense track training. Even now, she had to go an extra thirty minutes on the treadmill. She wasn't dressed in what she wore earlier today though; rather, her hair was packed with a hair tie to the the back while she wore a black Adidas short and a white T-shirt. The well illuminated (and equipped), fairly large room the school used as it's gym was nearly empty with only a few students present.

Today didn't go as she expected. Anna heard thoughts, lots of them but there was no case of black eyes. She didn't even need the hoodie. She was nearly her usual self today, happy, active in class and playful. She was still cautious though, didn't intentionally try to read thoughts, stay in large and noisy areas but she was mostly normal.

Nothing much had happened today either.

Getting down from the treadmill, she walked to a nearby bench where her gym bag was and sat down. As she did, her powers notified her of a few new persons approaching the gym.

As they walked towards her, Anna smiled a little before talking. “Well this is a surprise.”

“What is?” Sarah and Mike asked in unison.

“No not you Mike,” Anna replied the dark skinned boy. “I meant seeing Sarah in the gym. It's like a fantasy turning real.”

Smiling now, the boy replied, “Well in that case it's going to be a little disappointing to hear she's not here to work out.”

“Ever seen someone work out in skirts before?” Moving her hands about herself in a dramatic manner, she added, “And I'm never gonna, it's too tiring. Besides, this body is perfect already.

“Yeah right,” Anna replied rolling her eyes, causing Mike to laugh a bit.

“Anyways,” Sarah said deliberately louder than she should have. “We're here about something else.”

Getting up, Anna took a bottle of water from her gym bag and opened it. “This better not be about the maths homework. I've got nearly zero ideas about how to go about it.”

“Nope. It's about something else.”

Dropping the now half full bottle of water, she asked, “What's it about then?”

Looking at each other before replying, Mike spoke almost whispering. “Remember the John McCormick incident, the disappearance of our City famous Quarterback?”

“Yeah,” Anna replied. “What I don't get is why you're whispering about that.”

“Something came up,” Sarah answered.

“Okay, the police find anything?” Anna asked doing her best to not read their thoughts. Why were they being so dramatic?

“Not with the police, Donna got a text during lunch break today.”

“He's alive Anna,” Sarah said “And he wants her help.”

“Okay, what's that supposed to mean. I mean what does he want her to do?”

“Well for starters, he's on the run and not missing,” Mike said folding his arms. “A group want him dead for some reason he didn't state in the text. Fortunately, he has something they want back at home and he wants her to give to him. She can't go to the police because the group he messed with is pretty big and organised.”

“And that's where you come in,” Sarah continued. “She knows this could be some sort of trap. Hell, it may not even be her brother who sent the text, so she's asking people she trust for help. She would have been here with us but she's has class right now.”

“I don't know guys, with what's been happening in Redstone, don't you think it's a little bit too dangerous for a bunch of teenagers to go to a certain location at night. It could be a kidnapping scheme.”

“And that's why I got my dad in on it. He'd be sending a team with us just in case,” Sarah replied.

And what if it was a mindman attack? She couldn't say that out loud but it came to her mind. Duncan said something about a war coming. What if this madness going on in her city was related to it? If it was a mindman attack then there would be no police team capable of stopping them. She wasn't a great mindman but she was Sarah's best bet of getting out of there unhurt if such a thing happened. She couldn't say no to Donna either. The girl wouldn't hesitate if she was the one who needed help. Since there was no way she was going to be able to stop them from doing this, Anna might as well do her best in ensuring they didn't get hurt.

Sighing, Anna spoke. “So what's the plan.”