“Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible at will?” Dylan asked Kimona as they left the gymnasium at The Facility.

Kimona had just been perturbed by Jamison Joyner a.k.a Nauyerdunt’s sudden appearance in the middle of the conversation they were just having… about him!

“I’d want to fly. Being able to be invisible is creepy.”

“Only if you use it for doing creepy things. I’d want to be invisible,” Dylan decided.

“But not to be creepy though, I hope?”

“Me? Noooo! No way hosay! Out of the two, honestly, I just really don’t like the idea of flying! I hated it when Pan took me out of that hotel window. I’m a feet-firmly-on-the-ground kinda boy.”

Kimona smiled.

“Ok Kimmy. What about this one? Invisibility or-”

“Kimona?” The Secretary called out from behind, interrupting Dylan from his hypothetical questioning.

“Ma’am?” Kimona answered, slowly turning.

“Can we have a chat please? In my office?”

“I’m just-”

“Now. Please.”

“Ok, no worries,” Kimona said as The Secretary walked off.

"I hate when she says 'can we have a chat'. It's never a good thing," Dylan said when she was out of ear shot. “Sounds like you’re going to get told off,” he teased.

“Trust me, it’s not me who’ll be getting the telling off,” she mumbled.

“Huh? What’d you say?”

“Never mind. I’ll give you a text or something later, ok?”

“Fine, good luck at your telling off.”

***

“Thanks Kimona, take a seat,” The Secretary smiled somewhat pleasantly. “It’s been a while since we’ve spoken, and I just wanted to check in. You know, I've not had a moment to think it feels, after what happened at The Lodge and The Facility, and all since you went to England… But thank you for your help and staying on to support the Warriors. It was also a good idea to have Eden join with them too. And I think it’s fair to say that Tobias really took a shining to you!”

“He’s a good kid. They were a good team to work with.”

“Quite. But I’m glad you’re back with us in the States and The Collective. Plus, I bet you are too- I’m sure the English weather just doesn’t compare to Miami, eh?” she said, attempting some light humour.

Kimona just smiled awkwardly, not giving her boss much to work with.

The Secretary leaned forward in her seat, he elbows resting on the table and her arms crossed and sighed in resignation. “Is everything ok, Kimona? I get that it was a bit of an intense year for you, and I know going back to England must have been bitter sweet for you, but I can’t help but wonder if-”

Before The Secretary could finish, Kimona cut her off. “Have you been a hundred percent honest with me since I’ve resurfaced?”

The Secretary blinked in confusion, caught off guard by the specificity of the question. “Excuse me?”

“Have you been honest with me since I resurfaced and joined The Collective?” Kimona repeated again. She folded her arms. “Because I’ve been told some information that makes you out to be a liar.”

The Secretary dropped her shoulders and leaned back in her chair, almost in defeat. She spun around to one side to look absent mindedly at the painting on her wall.

“So he told you?”

“Yeah of course he did!" Kimona said, more animated than she was before. "He told me all about the trawlermen who went missing back in the sixties when a storm similar to the one I disappeared in and came back of out of, was sighted. But you told me you had meteorologists looking into it and they just couldn’t explain it. But...! But you know more than that don’t you, Ma’am? He reckoned I deserved to know the truth. Clearly he’s the one really only looking out for me.”

That last part made The Secretary laugh a little. “Oh please. Don’t for one minute think he’s looking out for your best interests!”

“Err, why not? Isaac’s been really good to me. Why wouldn’t he be?”

“Isaac?” The Secretary repeated, confused and caught off guard again.

“Yes, Isaac York. Who… who do you think I was talking about?”

“He told you in England? Before you came back?”

“Yes!” Kimona urged. “Who did you think I was talking about?”

“Shit,” The Secretary said, under her breath. She spun back round to Kimona and looked plainly as she thought of the right words. “Ok, so let me take you back a little bit first. When you resurfaced, I swear it was the first time I knew of anything like that happening before. Time travelling storms... I didn't have a clue. When you did appear that was my first experience of it and so we started monitoring you, and you proved yourself in Truumdale. Terri went to assist and we were going to make contact then Iron Lung got the better of Terri and escaped and we got you back to where you staying. Then Rio happened very quickly and it showed to us that you weren’t going to be a threat."

"I kinda know all that," Kimona said.

"I know. But I want you to know what I knew and when I knew it. It wasn’t until after all that, that I had the time and the people to look into how it all came about… the storms, and that was when I had learnt the truth about the previous one in the sixties. And that is the truth.” The Secretary paused, and Kimona kept quiet, just watching intently. “And you’re right. Isaac’s right. In 1961, a crew of four trawlermen went missing, presumed dead after a near identical super natural storm to the one you were lost in. Two so far have resurfaced. The first one only eight years later in '69, and the second a year after that.”

“Bloody hell, Ma’am,” said Kimona, shaking her head in utter disbelief. “And what happened to them? Did they have enhancements too?”

“The first one came out with enhancements. Super strength, super swimming and he could double his size and summon electricity from the atmosphere and use it to strike people. He went on to become a key part of The Bureau of Altered Persons, which was the name for the group before it became politically incorrect to call them ‘altered persons’ and the group became-”

“The Enhanced Beings Collective?”

“Correct. He was an icon in the end of the sixties and seventies before retiring. He went by the name of 'Old Glory', which was an old nickname for the American flag. So patriotic, eh? He was a legend.”

“Ok, so then who was the second one? You said two resurfaced.”

The Secretary sighed. “The second was who I thought had told you all about this.”

Kimona frowned.

“The second is who we know… who you know… as Iron Lung.”

Kimona was stunned silent for a moment. Then, “You have got to be having a laugh?!” she cried out. Her heart was picking up speed in her chest, her mouth having gone bone dry. She couldn’t believe it. All this time and one of her foes she had been fighting with had something in common with her all along.

“No," The Secretary admitted. "When the storm hit, Iron Lung was diving in the sea, in his suit and he resurfaced in it. It had… become part of him. When he surfaced, Old Glory was sent to help recover him, but when Iron Lung saw what Old Glory, his old pal, had become, he didn't react well. A mixture of grief, confusion, fear… I suppose, of what he had become and he lashed out. Old Glory beat him on a fight on the beach of Fort Lauderdale and exiled him to the sea where he has lived ever since.”

“…Christ.” That was all Kimona could mutter.

“I know. It wasn’t announced at the time that Old Glory or Iron Lung came out from a storm. They were just the “newest” heroes and villains to emerge. The seventies were a different time and the Government didn’t have the technology to investigate or explain what happened, so they kept it from the public altogether to avoid hysteria. So yeah… That is it. I’m really sorry, Kimona.”

“I don’t get it Ma’am. Why not just tell me this when you found out? Here I’ve been these last couple of years thinking I am the only one to have been through this experience.”

“I know. But it’s part of my job. Sometimes I have to keep information to myself even at the risk it might make me unpopular. But think about it… Has you not knowing really made that much of a difference? To the way I have treated you? Has it made a difference to the opportunities you’ve had or to the amazing things you’ve done since? Have I had your back any less during that trouble with the press and the Bashir family? No. It’s just what I’m paid to do. Now, if you’d ask me if I wanted to keep it from you, the answer would be no. Of course I wanted you to know, but like I said, it’s just part of my job. If I told you and it got out, the press would have a field day suggesting Government cover ups and conspiracy theorists would be foaming at the mouth.”

Kimona was a bit put out. She’d entered the conversation wanting to argue but how could she now? It sucked, but she also knew she wasn’t bigger than the US Government and the secrets it kept. She couldn’t even be mad at The Secretary for being a two faced cow anymore.

“Fine. I understand,” she said tearing up. “I just… I just believed that knowing what had happened to me would make it… make it easier, I guess.” She wiped her eyes. “So do you at least know anything about the storms? Something that you can’t tell me?”

The Secretary got up from her chair and walked to Kimona’s side of the desk, perching beside her. “No, sweetie. That much, I can say. It really does just seem to be random and as naturally occurring as regular storms. That’s not to say that they aren’t super natural in nature, but there doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason for them right now. You were just one of the unlucky ones.”

“Yeah,” Kimona mumbled. “Ok. Well… I’m sorry for going off at you.”

“Don’t be. I can imagine how you felt hearing that news. I just wish you hadn’t bottled it up for so long.”

“I was pissed, Ma’am. I just needed time to process it,” she said getting up.

“But Kimona, just because I can’t tell you, doesn’t mean you can’t find out from… let’s say… someone who has gone through what you have...”

“You won’t stop me?”

“No. I can’t keep an eye on you all time can I? I’m preoccupied with Her Who I Hate To Speak Of and the nose she's butting into my business.”

Kimona chuckled. “Thanks. I’ll be out on the water then.”