Two things happened immediately she did that. First, the wave she had released left the man knocked out cold. Second, Anna's actions turned the man's partners attention to her. Unfortunately, they were a lot more than she thought they were and were hardly affected by the wave.

Worst part was, they were all carrying guns.

Once again, she gathered the force around herself and as they shot at her, the bullets got absorbed into the forcefield and hung in the air. She let them continue firing, with the intention of attacking after their bullets ran out but had to change tactics when two men turned their attention back to Donna and the guys who were still on the ground backing the fray.

She had to finish this fast. There were no silencers on these guns. Reaching with her power, she pulled the men backwards violently, making them hit the other gunmen behind them. Taking advantage of their disorientation, she dissipated the half ring of bullets and lunged at them. Using her telekinesis like a boost, she threw herself at one of the men and gathered the force again at the last minute.

It worked. She hit the man, both of them landing hard on the ground. Anna felt nothing on impact... she couldn't say the same about the man though. Like she thought, the forcefield didn't obstruct her but moved with her and remained there until she wanted it gone. While it worked in her favour here, it didn't outside as it meant she had to concentrate harder in ensuring the forcefield she placed outside didn't move too far otherwise she'd have some some explaining to give.

Anna got up almost immediately and charged at two other men. Dissipating the large forcefield around her, she formed two glove-like ones around her fists and one on her face. The forcefield which she could form almost instantaneously at will, also hazed the area it was in. That helped in concealing her identity since she didn't really need to see to know where the bad guys were and what they were doing.

One of the men still had a few rounds left in his gun. As he took it up to aim, Anna hit it out of his hand breaking the man's wrist in the process. As he reeled from the pain, she punched him in the face (definitely breaking something there too) sending the man flying a few feet.

Okay, less force in the punches, she thought as she saw drops of blood on the man's face.

Thinking she would be taken by surprise, the second man attacked her from behind. Unfortunately for him, she could still sense him within the force as he moved towards her. She let him get close enough and when he did, Anna dropped into a squatting position and stretched out a leg. Spinning, she took out his legs beneath him and he fell. Then she (with much less strength) punched the man in the chest, knocking him out.

Two more got up, they weren't holding guns, but knives. As they ran toward her,, she released a wave in their direction and they were knocked back down to the ground.

This was nice. Aside the fact that she was a little scared fighting armed thugs, annoyed that her friends were in danger and worried that people she didn't want knowing she had powers were seeing her use them, she felt ecstatic.

Almost like she had been doing this all her life.

They didn't let her celebrate for long. As she raised her head, she saw three man approach Donna. They didn't give a damn about Mike or Jonathan (who for some reason looked unconscious), just Donna. Obviously they were still intent on finishing the job they came for.

But Anna wasn't going to let them. “Hey asshole!” she said at the top of her voice. “Leave her alone.” As she finished the sentence, she ran towards them. They turned their attention away from Donna (who was on her feet by that point) and faced her. Maybe getting their attention wasn't entirely a good thing because as they walked towards her, Anna noticed something.

They were like her.

Not exactly like her, they were more than human. They weren't mindmen, she knew that much. When she was around Prince, she could feel power, like it was two persons fighting her. Around normal people, she felt very little of that fiery presence, she felt the same weak presence from Duncan too indicating he was mostly human. But from these men walking towards her, she felt coldness. There was nothing. They were empty.

They weren't zombies or anything like that. Physically, they seemed normal, they had coherent thoughts. She wasn't seeing their faces too clearly but she was sure their faces looked very much human as well otherwise Donna would be screaming by now.

Getting as close as she would let herself, Anna dissipated the forcefield on her face. She could see them clearly now and she somewhat recognized them, the one in the middle was the same man she (not so gracefully) fell on earlier. From the thoughts of the other two, she recognised the other two as the ones she pulled back with her powers.

Speaking of powers, as she got close to the men, she felt a dangerously cold aura from the them. She almost reflexively formed a large forcefield but didn't. Donna was right behind them, although her attention was on Jonathan, she could recognise Anna the moment she turned her attention back to her. It was safest if that happened with her looking more like normal Anna than super Anna. She didn't remove the one on her fists though.

Damn it. She wished she could do this without worrying about identity.

“Didn't like what you did there,” the man on the right said. “Thought you'd take us out that easily? That's disrespectful.” Gesturing to the unconscious bodies lying around. “The other guys, maybe, but not us. We're special.”

“You are not special,” Anna replied. Putting her left hand on her hip, she continued. “Special guys are cute. Trust me, there is nothing cute about you.”

The smirk on the man's face disappeared then. He closed the distance between them and attacked. He was fast. Deadly strong too. She could feel his fist travel to her face with enough force enough to break a wall.

She blocked it with an open palm.

Unfortunately, that was the only 'super cool' thing she did fighting the man. Even at that, the punch still made her move backwards a few feet. Her hand was alright though, but she needed to make another forcefield.

“You're not pissed about—”

She couldn't finish her statement as his fist came towards her face once again. She took quick steps back, dodging the powerful looking punch aimed at her. Looking at Donna, she saw signs that indicated she wanted to join her but a hard stare from Anna changed her mind.

The man looked infuriated and embarrassed. He moved forward swinging his fist again and Anna blocked. He continued until it became a flurry of of kicks and punches. Anna dodged a few while she blocked others. He was a hard fighter, single-minded and fast with his moves.

And he didn't lose concentration at all.

He kicked at her again. She (pushing past the sharp pain she felt as she did) caught it this time and tried twisting it to get the leg into a lock. He was stronger than her, faster too, yanking his leg away from her grip wasn't too hard. From the corner of her eyes, she could see one of his partners draw out a knife and circle round her. The other was standing with Donna holding her like she was a hostage which angered Anna the more. She wanted to fight him instead but she couldn't. The man she was locked in combat with, wasn't relenting as he continued on his attack from every angle. Dodging was nigh impossible and blocking wasn't easy either.

Whatever this cold aura was, it was making him stronger, faster and much harder to fight.

Dodging another incoming fist of his, Anna punched his face making him stumble a bit. She took the opportunity and unleashed her own series of attacks, hitting every open spot. He was down on one knee, reeling from the attacks like any normal person would when suddenly, his partner swung his knife. It was his dark haired partner who had been circling round her earlier. His weapon would have struck home if her radar sense wasn't still active.

She dodged it, and hit his rib with her forcefield-shielded knee. Holding the knife with his hand still attached to it, she stabbed the other man she had hit earlier in the arm and then slashed his dark haired partner on the face. Her attack was quickly followed by the largest wave she had released tonight which not only sent them flying but left them twitching and groaning. Turning around, she saw the last one holding Donna to the wall, strangling her. «

God. What was wrong with the guys? Why were they... It was then she noticed the bloodied blue sweat shirt Mike was wearing and remembered the gunshot. Mike was hurt, Jonathan was probably injured as well. That's what was wrong with them.

Not wasting another second, Anna ran towards the man and attacked. Almost immediately, the man himself, turned around and before she could react, he hit her in the abdomen. Anna fell and the man kicked her, sending her sliding across the floor.

Dropping Donna, he walked toward Anna. “I'm getting a little bit irritated with you girl.”

“And I'm guessing asking for a time out would be too much, wouldn't it?” Anna asked struggling to her feet.

“It won't work girl, I know what I came here for and I'm gonna walk out with it,” The man grated and continued walking towards her. Anna lunged at him and he dodged her attack. She didn't even get to land a single hit. He evaded her attacks and hit her severally. He was stronger and a better fighter than anyone she'd fought against. Even with her forcefield, she could barely defend herself.

And they soon went out as well.

Anna dropped to the ground, injured. Before she could do anything, the man grabbed her by the neck and began choking her. “You see you're just a girl with slightly good fighting skills, but me, I'm more than human. Taking that drive ensures I remained this way forever.”

“The... drug is creating... the cold aura?”

“Oh so you've seen the video,” the man said in a dark voice. “Can't let you live now.”

And the man squeezed harder. Anna probably would have died (that is if mindmen could die) if he continued choking her for another ten seconds. Fortunately, he didn't as a loud gunshot was heard and the man practically flew off her. Almost immediately, the man got up and literally ran through one of the walls in the warehouse.

It was the police. They'd finally entered the warehouse. Her forcefield must have gone down when the man was choking her. What was odd was that, it wasn't Officer Payne or Brantley that shot the man. It was a female police officer.

“Are you alright, Miss Albert?” the police officer asked as she got to her.

“Just slight injuries, I'll be fine. But Mike got shot and something's wrong with Jonathan.”

“We'll take care of them ” As she said that, more police officers entered the warehouse. “Sorry we couldn't come in earlier,” the police officer continued.

Wincing as she got up, Anna asked,“You are?” Pausing, she corrected, “Of course you are. But why?”

“Officer Payne and Brantley were engaged in a crossfire with sixteen gunmen outside the warehouse. Almost the same time you got in.”

“Oh my God, is Sarah okay?” Anna asked. She was worried but relieved as well. If they were busy at the time she got in, it probably meant no one noticed the forcefield she'd placed outside.

“She's fine. Now let's get you home.”

■

“How did you know something was up?” Sarah asked.

They were back at home, in Sarah's house. Precisely in the girl's bedroom. That was after the police had debriefed them and contacted their parents. Even though she didn't want it, she was going to have a long chat with her parents tomorrow. They had taken a shower and went up to sleep but the night was almost over and they didn't feel sleepy. They were nervous and charged up. Anna knew they should sleep so they could recover faster from their ordeal but she couldn't. Her mind was sifting through the events of the night. So they busied themselves with the maths homework. Anna laid on the bed while Sarah sat.

Tonight was a bust. For them, at least. The police got to arrest twenty-two criminals but Donna didn't get her brother back and lost the one advantage she had. Anna could only imagine how bad Donna felt. The boys were pretty banged up as well. Jonathan got hit at the back of the head which lead to mild concussion and Mike's shoulder had seen better days. Anna didn't really need treatment, her healing powers had kicked in by that point. She was feeling better already.

“Huh?” Anna answered, pretending to hear Sarah for the first time.

“How'd you know that Donna and the guys were in trouble?”

“Uh, the time,” Anna replied. “Figured if it was John in there, they'd be out on time. The rest was just luck I guess.”

“Just felt odd, you know. Seemed like you were meditating or something before you figured it out. And then the gunmen, didn't know you could fight like that.”

Facing her, Anna replied, “If I was that great, the police wouldn't have found me knocked out on that dirty floor. I spent thirty minutes in the shower and I still don't feel clean.”

Sarah snorted a laughter then. “Yeah, you're right.”

“...Unless you wanted people to think that.”

It took everything within her to remain calm after she heard Sarah's thoughts. The girl was unto her now. Anna really needed to be careful next time, because there was going to be a next time. That man said something about a drug making him more than human and she was a witness to it's effects. A drug like that wasn't supposed to exist talk more of being used by a crime syndicate. His mission was obviously to get the drive from Donna and ensure the police or anyone else didn't begin investigating in their activities. Anna was beginning to doubt the safety of the copy back at the police station. Maybe that was where she needed to start from. Infiltrate the police station, make a copy of the video, just in case and start her own investigation.

This was her city, she had to save it. For people like Claire and Sarah to live happy, normal lives. For people like Donna to never have to go through the pain of loosing a loved one.

Of course, she had to get a disguise. She didn't want to get caught on her first mission or maybe she could...

Okay she didn't need to think about everything now. What she needed to was finish her homework, close her eyes and force her overactive brain to sleep or she'd be too tired.

It was going to be a long day at school tomorrow.