Have you or someone you know endured an accident or another form of physically or mentally taxing incident? Have they subsequently started to exhibit one or more of the following?:

Increased agitation/restlessness Extraordinary physical feats, such as being able to lift extremely heavy objects with ease Unusual phenomena around the person, such as halting thrown objects mid-air The need to 'shape the world'

If so please contact the number below.

The first logical way to find more Cordians was to have them come forward themselves, the trio reasoned. They have printed out several hundred flyers instructing the empowered people to reach out to them, and they glued them all over the city.

The results were rather disappointing. Tadeus and Lena knew of course that the drive to change the world wasn't exclusive to Cordians, but they have severely underestimated the amount of radicalized teenagers tired of the status quo that would call them. There were also prank calls, which were the second biggest category of callers. Reports of ligma and asking if their refrigerator was running were growing from initially almost amusing, to annoying, to boring, to annoying again.

But there was also Jennifer.

"Hello, you are from the flyers about weird things happening after trauma?"

"Yes, we are conducting a study. Would you like to share your experience?"

"Well, I have been under a lot of stress recently, you know, exams and stuff, and one day was going through a truckload of homework, it was two in the morning and there was no way I could have done it alone. I thought 'if only I could get someone to do this for me', and then I felt shivers all over my body. When I looked at my hand it was growing a second palm and- and I know it sounds crazy, but I swear to god I'm not making this up."

"It's okay, no judgement here. What happened next?"

"It was like I was growing another arm, a palm and then the rest of the hand, and then it started peeling off me. It didn't hurt, I expected to feel like I was skinned alive, but all I felt was cold. Cold and hunger, and then I passed out. When I woke up the next morning my clothes were torn, and my homework was done. In my. Fucking. Handwriting. It was all done how I would have done it, all my little quirks of writing perfectly copied. I took a few days off school after that, and on my way for grocery I saw your advert."

"That is quite an experience. Has anything else like that happen since?"

"No more hand-splitting, but I got that 'agitation' you mentioned in the ad. What happens now? Men in Black pack me up in a van and I'm never heard from again?"

Tadeus chucled at that. "No, nothing of the sort. Though, if you don't mind, I and my associates would like to meet personally, to discuss a few things regarding your… condition."

"...So no, you're not crazy, and you're not the only one." Lena finished catching Jennifer up to speed.

"So what now? What do we do?"

"Well, what do you want? We don't plan on abducting you to run tests on you, as we established, but we would like to check the extent of your powers, if you are willing."

"I just want to understand what's going on exactly, so yeah, let's do tests. If we understand it, maybe you guys could cure it."

That gave Tadeus a pause. He didn't consider someone would want to get rid of the alterations concordis brought, but he could quickly understood that the mental changes may for some outweigh the benefits.

"If that is what you want, we already started to study the microbe in detail, so we can replicate the beneficial effects in a more controlled way. We hope we can isolate the mental influence and get rid of it, leaving only the power."

"No. Take it all away. I don't wanna be a fucking vigilante or something. I mean, I do, but that's because the bug is telling me to use it."

"Okay. We will try to find a full cure as well. Now, are you still up for the tests?"

Jennifer was told to get in the same mental state she was in the original incident. She thought of a simple task - writing her name on a piece of paper - and sat down, repeating in her head 'I wish someone else did it for me'. A moment later, the entire front of her body started bulging out. The excess mass her body created started taking on the shape of the parts it grew out of. Soon she had a second pair of hands that quickly peeled off her, joined by a second torso, head, and finally it took a step out of her. The resulting creature looked exactly like Jennifer. It went straight to the table, picking up a pen. Jennifer stared, barely conscious, as her copy wrote down her full name, and turned around to face her.

"All done." Second Jennifer smiled, as she approached the original. As it reached out, Jennifer wanted to stop it, but she felt too weak to move, and neither did the scientists move in to stop it, too curious to interrupt the process. As the doppelganger touched her hand with its own, both identical women started melding together. Moments later, only the original Jennifer remained. After half a minute of silence, Jennifer spoke up.

"That was the most disturbing fucking thing I've ever experienced."

"How are you feeling? Did it hurt?"

Jennifer took a second to answer, still shaking a bit. "It didn't hurt, but there was that hunger again. Like a rumbling in my stomach, but in my entire body. It went away when she- when it came back inside me."

"You did just grew a human's worth of mass, it had to have come from somewhere. Did you also feel that cold again?"

"Yes, but now it has more to do with the fact that I'm naked." The second body growing out of her tore her clothes in half in the process. As if he only just then realized this, Tadeus turned around to look away, embarrassed.

"We will find something for you. Anything else?" Lena continued.

"Tired, mostly. And… that's hard to describe, but it's like I was there. Like I have a vague memory of writing down my name just now."

"I presume you are not up for more trials?"

"Fuck no. At least not today. Just give me some clothes and I'll be on my way. I'll call you guys if I want to meet up again."