Back at Headquarters, Present Day

Michael threw open the truck door, letting it slam upward as he looked upon the pile of guns he had recovered. He let out a faint sigh of relief as he realized that nobody had begun cataloging his inventory with the extra weapons that he had recovered. Digging through the pile of M249’s and M4’s. In the pile was that 10mm 1911. He had been in the market for another pistol, and he knew he’d be too busy to go to a store and buy one. Thanks for the new gun pal, he thought to himself as he picked it up and removed its magazine. Ejecting the round that was still in it, he pocketed the pistol and its magazine. Full powered fuck you, he thought as he smirked.

Having set his own weapons aside from the pile of extras, he began getting ready to catalog the extras into inventory when Lani stepped into the truck with him. She clutched a tablet with a video pulled up. “Michael,” she said softly, “you need to see this right fucking now.”

Michael took the tablet and hit play. It was footage of Michael, holding the janitor down as he beat him to death. A moment later, the video showed him holding Bernard by the neck, squeezing until his head had dangled by a small bit of skin. The video showed Michael standing off of Bernard slowly, there were shots of Lani, standing near Michael to protect him from the gathering crowd. Footage of a hospital suddenly bursting into flames after they had run back inside.

Lani grabbed Michaels arm and held tightly. “I’m not used to this,” she said nervously to him, “we’ve never been filmed before, what do we do?”

Michael shook his head and handed the tablet back. “I usually never get filmed doing shit,” he said softly, “but this isn’t good.”

Tom stepped into the truck. “Michael,” he said with a stern and displeased look, “I’m guessing she showed you?”

Michael nodded with a half chuckle. “Yeah,” he said sarcastically, “I do pretty good work apparently.”

Tom scowled his eyes. “This isn’t funny Michael,” he said in a grumbling tone, “The public now has your face and your power.” He turned to Lani, “You’re not so focused on,” he said calmly, “but you can be somewhat identified standing there holding your weapon.”

Lani threw her hands up in frustration, “what the fuck does that mean?” she asked frantically, “I have no idea what to do about it.”

Michael rolled his eyes and shook his head a little. “It means we’re not a secret anymore,” he said softly, “it means we probably need to wear masks and minimize how often we go out in public.”

“It means we can no longer be some back of a closet group of tax funded agents,” Tom said exhaustedly, “We have to deal with suits and ties, as well as have a name for this organization.” He then looked square at Michael. “This means you can’t be a contractor anymore,” he uttered, “You’re both Agents as of five minutes ago.”

Lani’s eyes went wide. “Agent?” she asked with startled confusion, “Michael, what does that mean?”

Michael turned and set his hand on her shoulder and looked directly into her eyes. “It kinda means that people are gonna tell Tom what to do,” he said softly, “And Tom’s gonna tell us what to do, and they’re gonna expect to know where we are and what we’re doing at all times.”

“Does this mean my online shopping has to be approved,” Lani asked, “I’ve never answered to anyone but you.”

Michael began to laugh a little, “You’re gonna be fine,” he said through a smile, “my little sister is still gonna stick with me. Pretty sure Tom’s not gonna let us get separated.”

“Quite the opposite,” Tom interjected, “I’m going to keep you assigned to each other no matter what. I’ve seen how you run without her and I need you at your best at all times for what’s going on in the world.”

Lani grabbed a hold of Michael and hugged him tightly. “I almost lost you twice now,” she said through gritted teeth, “We’ll see our way through this.”

Tom turned and stepped out of the truck. “We have a briefing in the meeting room,” he said as he stepped away, “throw your guns in the crown vic next to the truck and come find out your next assignments.”

Michael hugged Lani for a moment before they went back to sorting the guns the rest of the way. Once they had set the personal weapons in the trunk of the car, they made their way to the meeting.

Moments later

As they sat at the table, Tom dimmed the lights and started his presentation on the projector. “Welcome everyone,” he said with the most insincere smile that Michael had ever seen, “You are now members of Task Force Gift.” murmurs became audible in the room. “Focus please,” Tom said as he tried to keep attention on the presentation, “We have a new responsibility that extends beyond guiding enhanced persons of power to make better use of their capabilities.” He took a slow breath before continuing. “We now have a responsibility to hunt down and eliminate enhanced terrorists, while aiding in promoting a positive image for gifted persons.”

Michael began to chuckle. People turned and looked at him with confused and frustrated looks.

“Moving forward, Michael if you could pay attention please,” Tom said as he looked straight at him, “We also have a name for our threat that hit the building previously.” He moved to another slide. “These people call themselves the Order of the Crystal Chosen.” He paused for a moment to allow everyone to take it in before moving to the next slide.

“These people believe that they should be the ruling party of the world,” Tom continued. Before he could say anything else, Michael laughed again. “Do you have something to say?” Tom questioned as he began dwindling away with his patience.

Michael nodded, “These fucks aren’t trying to rule anything,” he said with snark in his voice, “they’re inciting chaos and destruction. At best they’ll bring the public to hate enhanced persons and get us persecuted like the witch hunts.”

“That’s what we’re worried about,” Tom answered as he minimized his powerpoint slides and brought up a video. He hit play and let it run. A news article played.

Gunfire erupted at a city hospital, it seems assassins and superheroes have come to life and are here in America.

A viral video shows a bearded man killing two men with his hands, one of them a super human and the other a helpless old man, no information on who these people are has surfaced.

A violent tempered man delivering his own justice with his hands and his guns, is this a superhero or did the villain win the fight?

A hospital wing burned down immediately following a hail of shooting.

While a hospital became a war zone, a business district became the scene of a horrifying gun battle as men with machine guns opened fire on civilians in the lobby of an office building.

What we’re seeing here is the dawn of a new age, where superhuman people can do what they want, and we’re probably helpless to ever stop them.

The argument for the return of gun control has sparked outrage from the National Rifle Association-

Michael rolled his eyes as the video came to a stop. “So that scared some people huh,” Michael uttered uncaringly.

Tom stepped back in front of the group around the table. “We’ve got a little bit of damage control to worry about,” he said with mild urgency in his voice, “and until we have confirmation of the whereabouts of these Crystal Chosen cells, you can’t go out on your own to act.”

Michael looked at Tom with confusion and disgust. “There’s terrorism going on,” he said agitatedly, “but you’re gonna leash me and keep me from doing anything about it?”

“You’ve been in the public spotlight,” Tom responded in equal agitation, “You can’t so much as go outside this building right now. The press are currently outside wanting to interview survivors of what happened here. I can’t even go out right now.”

“That’s bullshit,” Michael said with a sigh, “but at least the enforcement’s fair.”

Lani sat there beside Michael, glancing over to him with deep concern. She knew that Michael would not accept this for very long.