If you think you know somebody who resembles any of the characters here, congratulations, but you're wrong - any similarity between the characters in this story and any real person is purely coincidental, since all of these characters are figments of my imagination.

This is my story, not yours. Don't sell it or put it on a pay site. You can keep it and/or give it away with all of this information intact, but if you make money off of it without my permission, you're breaking the law and pissing me off.

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How you holding up, Tina? He 'asked.'

Ten! Will! Thank God! Tina 'replied.'

Okay, Tina, Will got right down to business, not sure how much time he would have. I've only done this once before - to myself, so bear with me. You have to make a choice: Do you want to be what you signed up to the program for, and maybe what I've become, or do you want to go back to being Tina, ex-soldier?

What you've become? She started to ask, but rather than 'answer' her, he flooded her mind with images of the things he'd done to himself, what he'd learned to do, and how he had escaped. Also imbedded in the sequence were the possible consequences of each course of action that he proposed.

Damn! Nine thought as she reeled under the onslaught of so much information all at once. Are you some kind of God, or something?

I'm just me, trying to learn how to deal with the situation in which I find myself. Will replied. I never expected things to turn out this way, but I still want to get the people that killed my wife and daughter, and this - whatever it is - promises to help in getting that done, so I'm not complaining. Thing is, the people that put these enhancements into us didn't really know what they were doing. They couldn't know. But I can fix you so most of the stuff they wanted you to have works, and the rest goes away. Thing is, it might also leave you able to do the stuff I've been doing, and you have to decide whether or not you want that, because I don't know how to do one without the other. I can undo what they've done, or I can finish it. Those are the only choices I have right now. Either one should give you some relief from the problems you're having with those implants, all you have to do is choose.

I still kinda like the idea of being a super-soldier, Nine thought, So I guess I'd like to see what's behind door number one. I don't suppose you know how to reverse all this stuff if I don't like it?

I can probably make you 'normal' again, Will answered,but I can't guarantee it. I've never tried it.

Fair enough. Tina 'said.' Let's get started before all this damn noise drives me batty!

Okay. I'll keep feeding you the 'images' of what I'm doing. Will thought at her. Who knows, maybe you'll find ways to improve on it.

For several hours, Will worked to remove the 'wrongness' from Tina's body, noting as he did, that her thoughts became clearer, and that finally, the noise died in her head. When he was finished, she seemed to have the strength and better hearing, and could 'see' and 'hear' with her mind as clearly as he, but no matter how she tried, she was unable to affect objects around her the way he could.

Now, when they 'mindtalked' it was almost as natural as speech.

Thanks a ton, Ten Tina told him as his focus withdrew from her body. I thought I was going to be lost in that hell forever! I told Robinson about it, but she couldn't, or wouldn't do anything to help. Damn! I'm famished!

They delivered a meal for you while I was working on you. Will told her I guess they're used to you being out of it. But that reminds me. I've got to find a better place to stay, and a way to get food. I suppose I could steal from the galley, but then they'd know I was still here, and maybe start looking in places where they haven't looked yet. Do me a favor, will you? My disappearance is going to screw Robinson's plans all to hell and there's no telling what she'll do, so will you kinda keep an 'eye' on her and let me know if she decides to do anything drastic? They think you're off in your own little world, so if anybody comes into your cell, just keep looking blank and pre-occupied and they should leave you alone.

But where will you go? Nine asked.How will I get in touch with you?

I'm going to the surface, and I'm going to try out these new abilities. Will replied. I'll take it in stages just to check the range of this kind of communication, but if I get out of range, I'll pop back often to check on you, okay?

Okay, she said, but don't leave me here, Ten. Eventually, somebody's going to notice that I don't have my implants anymore.

I won't be gone long.

With that, Will stretched his 'vision' upward, seeking a place on the surface that was not likely to be observed, but wasn't too far from Nine's location. What he discovered was that the wing of the complex where she was housed stretched far beyond the little airport where he had landed, and there were no other buildings or anything else man-made in that vicinity, including surveillance devices.

Gathering his energy, Will thought of a particular spot in the dry scrub and 'moved' himself there. The heat assaulted him, but the energy available from the heat and sun seemed to fill some sort of reservoir within him. To his amazement, as he absorbed energy from his surroundings, the temperature seemed to drop to a more bearable level, while his new abilities seemed to blossom and grow!

Still reading me, Nine? He thought, though he already knew the answer.

Five by five, Ten. She replied, with relief. Seems like a friendly place up there.

Yeah. Now I've got to find someplace even friendlier. Let's try those mountains over there...

He scanned for a deserted, reasonably safe landing spot and 'jumped.' Turning his attention back to his starting point, he realized he had come more than five miles, probably closer to ten, and his connection with nine was undiminished.

This looks like a pretty extensive mountain range. He told Nine. There ought to be a cave or abandoned mine, or someplace to hide out. Hang on...

Will began scanning the mountains, looking inside them with his new vision. He came across a couple of possibilities, but... As he continued his scan, Will came across the perfect hideout. A small cave carved out of the inside of a small mountain, about ten miles to the north. There were a couple of very small openings that would allow for ventilation, but were not big enough to allow anything larger than a racoon to enter or exit.

This was a longer jump than he had tried before, but he was gaining confidence in this ability, and made it with ease. As planned, he found himself standing on a small, almost flat rock ledge. He could see nothing with his eyes, but didn't need to. His 'other' vision provided him with all he needed to know about the space he intended to call home until he got a real handle on these new abilities. There was a small stream of water that ran through the cavern, and close examination with his 'vision' showed that it was relatively pure, having run down from higher up the mountain, probably from snow melt.

The cave was a bit chilly, and he would need a heat source, but he was reluctant to start a fire that might generate smoke. If he could heat up some of the rock, it would take a long time to cool down.

Could he use his new abilities to do that, somehow? Experimentally, he reached out with his mind to the nearest rock outcropping, feeling the energy inherent in its molecules. Unsure what to expect, he tried changing the energy he used to resonate with that of the rock. Suddenly a small "crack" resonated through the cavern and a chip fell off the rock.

Well, that was useful knowledge, and he might be able to use that technique to shape the cave to his needs, but it wasn't going to get him the warmth he would need.

Changing the energy he used slightly, he narrowed his focus and examined the rock at the molecular level. As he applied energy this time, the individual atoms within the rock became agitated, and a tiny area began to glow first red, then white, casting an eerie glow around the small space. That was a start, but it had taken quite a bit of energy, and there wasn't a lot of energy here for him to draw on. Too bad he couldn't 'move' some from outside, like he moved objects. Or could he?

Experimentally, Will sent a tendril of his own energy to the surface, Willing it to spread out like a sail when it emerged from the rock into sunlight. To his amazement, it worked! Like an electrical conduit, the small tendril of energy began to pump energy from the external heat and sunlight into him. Being careful not to let that connection slip, he turned once again to the rock, this time, applying the resonant energy to a large area of one wall. Small pockets of moisture steamed away with hisses and pops. Tiny algae plants and mosses cooked and burned. In moments, a large area of the wall was glowing red.

Considering his heating method a success, Will now turned his attention to food. He supposed he could kill game from the surrounding area to cook and eat, but didn't relish the thought of hearing the mental cries of whatever animal he chose for his meal. No, he decided, he would first try to find a source of pre-packaged food. If he got his food from human inhabited sources however, he was either going to have to steal it or find some way to pay for it. Also, he wanted to be sure not to create a pattern that would reveal his location to searchers.

The last part of that was easy. Since he could move around pretty much at will, he could scatter his appearances so far and wide that no one would have an idea where to look for him. The problem was how to pay for what he got. He didn't want to steal anything, partly out of common decency and partly out of sympathy for whoever he might take it from.

He had money in an account in Santa Clara, but suspected that if he went after it, Feds would be all over him in an instant.

I need to find a way to finance us, Nine, he thought, any ideas?

Always knew you were a softy, Ten! Tina replied. Guess that's part of what I like about you. How about precious metals? Maybe with all those powers you've got, you can find some gold or silver or something.

Hmmm. Will thought. I don't know. Let's see...

Will had found the cave by searching for cavities in the rock that composed the mountain range, and had noted that some of the surrounding materials were denser than others, but would that help him find something like gold or silver?

Never having even thought about prospecting, Will had little knowledge of how to proceed, though he seemed to remember reading somewhere that gold was often found in quartz rock. Almost absent-mindedly, he heated the tip of a stalactite to white heat, giving himself a physical view of his surroundings for the first time. Sure enough, a vein of quartz ran through the cavern, but he could not see anything that looked like gold, and his mental vision showed no significant density changes within it. He allowed his mindsight to follow the vein as it sank into the floor of the cavern. Further down, maybe a hundred yards beneath his feet, the vein suddenly widened into a vast sea of frozen igneous rock, within which, he could detect both more and less dense material.

Figuring that the less dense material would not be helpful, he turned his focus on the denser areas. Some of them, including a rather large pocket within the quartz field, seemed promising, but how to know? Could he move a small sample into the cave for visual examination?

Focusing in on a small volume of the dense material, Will 'moved' it to the ledge in front of him. A small spherical shape appeared at his feet, and promptly began to roll away into the darkness. It had already fallen off the edge of the ledge by the time Will thought to react.

Physically, he reached for the marble-sized piece as it disappeared over the edge, and automatically, his mind sought to deny its escape. To Will's astonishment, the little ball floated upward to hang, steady as a rock, in mid-air before his surprised countenance! He became conscious of holding the piece by its positional energy. Experimentally, he moved it left, right, up, down, growing more assured with each movement.

Nine, 'watching' from her cell back in the underground complex, thought Wow!

Aren't you supposed to be keeping an eye on Robinson? Will asked, not really upset.

I am. Nine replied. But that doesn't take a lot of attention, and this is a much better show!

I wish I could say it's just parlor tricks. Will returned. This stuff is starting to scare me, Nine.

Yeah, well, she answered, if it scares you that bad, imagine what it's going to do to those terrorists!

You're a 'cup's half full' kind of person, aren't you Nine? Will 'said' sardonically.

In your case, I'd say that cup is damn near overflowing, Ten! Tina thought back at him, her laughter clear in his mind.

Yeah, well, I've got a feeling this could be a mixed blessing, but I'll take it for what it's worth for the moment.

Will turned his attention back to the little ball of material that floated in front of him. Holding out his hand, palm up, he let go of the ball with his mind. It dropped solidly into his palm, heavier than he would have expected. The weight and the gold color made him reasonably certain that what he had here was almost pure gold, but he needed to be sure. He knew of only one other material that might fool him into thinking it was gold, and while this didn't look like the crystalline structure of iron pyrite, he had never seen either metal excised from the earth in a perfectly smooth sphere.

He knew of a couple of other tests he could perform. Holding the ball between thumb and forefinger, he squeezed. To his satisfaction, the material slowly flattened. Even his enhanced muscles shouldn't have been able to do that to iron pyrite, but the softness of gold was another matter.

Okay, one more test. The wall he had heated earlier still glowed red, so he looked around for something he could use to hold the metal against the rock. At first he was stymied, until Nine 'said' Why don't you just hold it the same way you kept it from rolling away?

Oh yeah! Will thought back. Doh!

Levitating the now deformed ball toward the heat of the rock, Will pushed with his mind until it touched. It took a few seconds for the metal to absorb enough heat, but sure enough, the side touching the rock, then the entire piece began to soften. Like cupping his hands under water, Will formed the tendril of energy holding the lump into a bowl shape just in time to catch the liquid gold as it melted into the depression. A few small bits of impurity floated on the surface, and Will sent out another tendril to flick them away.

Withdrawing the now molten gold from the heat source, Will absorbed its energy into himself, watching it quickly solidify. He figured there was about an ounce and a half or two ounces of almost pure gold in that little ingot. Fair trade for almost anything he wanted to purchase for now.

He was just turning his mind to the problem of where and how to make such a purchase when Nine interrupted, her thought filled with urgency and a little fear.

Dr. Robinson just got off the phone with whoever she takes orders from. Tina informed him. Her orders are to euthanize me and Eight and shut this facility down. Apparently this program's been on the ropes for months, but they were waiting to see if you'd turn out to be what they were looking for. Now we're all liabilities. You've got to get us out of here, Ten!

Okay, Tina, let's get you first...

In the blink of an eye, Prototype Nine stood beside him in the slowly fading light of the still-glowing stalactite.

"Hang out here for a bit, Nine." He told her. "If I'm going to get Eight he's going to have to come down from his high. I'm not about to baby sit his ass."

Without waiting for a reply, Will sent his thought to 'visit' with Prototype Eight.

Tom Hall! He sent so sharply that the recipient had no choice but to pay attention. Listen up! You're about to be killed so they can shut down this facility without leaving any embarrassing evidence behind. I'm giving you a choice: You let me shut down that little light show in your head, and I'll get you out of here. Otherwise you wait for Robinson's goons to come by with a lethal hypospray. Take your pick.

Huh? Whatchoo talkin' bout Ten?

Playtime's over Eight. Will showed him the images he had gotten from the guard's memory, then showed him what he'd done for himself and Nine. Last, he connected Eight's mind with his own and showed him the images, with sound, of Dr. Robinson, albeit reluctantly, giving the guards the order to kill the two remaining prototypes. That is what I'm talking about. Now do you want to live or die. Choose now.

Suddenly sobered considerably, Eight's military training kicked in and he replied. Bummer, Ten. But I'm not ready to kick the bucket yet. I guess it's back to reality time.

Okay, here we go.

"That's some trick!" Eight said, moments later when he found himself standing in the cave next to Nine.

"Yeah, I thought so, the first couple of times I did it." Will said. "Okay, Nine, I need to get Eight squared away here, and that could take a couple of hours. Can you scan the countryside and see if you can find a grocery store or something. Preferably something far East of here. It's getting late and there should be one that's already closed and locked up for the night. When you find it, let me know and I'll see what I can do about getting us something to eat."

Okay, Tom, he told Eight, you get the same choice as Nine. You can go on to 'be all that you can be' in ways the Army never dreamed of, or you can go back to being plain old Tom Hall.

Will I be able to do the same kind of stuff that you do?

I don't know. Will shrugged. I tried to do Nine the same way I did myself, but she can only do the mindsight and telepathy stuff. Maybe you'll be the same as me, or the same as her, or maybe you'll find that you can do something totally different. This is all new to me. You're my third patient, and while I haven't lost any yet, I can't guarantee the results either. All I do is try to correct things that don't seem right, and that's how Nine and I wound up the way we are. I don't know how to make specific kinds of changes.

Fair enough. I guess I'll try being superman for a while. Hell, that's what we signed up for, huh?

It took much less time with Eight, since Will was more sure of himself, and he was almost done when Nine broke into his thoughts.

I've found a little back country grocery over to the southeast a ways that looks like it's locked up tight. She told him. Want to take a break?

Hang on. Will replied, I'm almost done here... There!

While Eight experimented with his new abilities without the distraction of the uncontrolled sensor inputs, Will followed Nine's thought to the small country store she had discovered. Closer examination revealed that the place was more like an old fashioned General Store, with supplies for almost every aspect of life in that part of the country.

"What do you figure gold is going for these days, Nine?" Will asked.

Tina screwed up her face as she searched her memory. "Seems I heard a financial report before I joined this program saying it was running a little over five hundred an ounce, but I never pay much attention to that stuff, so I can't be sure."

"Yeah," Will said, "that's pretty much the way I remember it too. My guess is that it hasn't gone down any since we were taken out of circulation, so we'll go with that."

"You guys want to go shopping with me?" Will asked.

"Hell yeah!" Nine replied. "I'd do anything to see a place where real people live and shop for a change."

"I think I'll hang out here for a while." Eight said. "Hey, before you go, can you show me how you do that teleporting thing? I want to see if I can do it too."

"Tell you what," Will answered, "you can come along for the ride in my head while I take Nine and myself to this little store. That should be better than trying to tell you how to do it."

He fed Eight the mental patterns he used to find the location, identify its energy patterns, and change his and Nine's energy so that they could exist nowhere but at the destination. Instantly, they found themselves in the darkened interior of a quaint old General Store. There were lighted exit signs over the doors that, combined with the moonlight streaming through the windows, provided enough light to see around the interior of the store.

"Perfect!" He said, when his eyes confirmed what his mindsight had already told him. There was camping gear and other essentials as well as food that could be stored without refrigeration - smoked meats, cured hams, canned goods, flour and sugar. He also spotted some large ice chests. "Okay, Nine, there's enough stuff here that we can get set up for survival for quite a while. You know the kinds of things we need, so do me a favor and make a pile of stuff over there by the counter. Better get knives for all of us, and sidearms for you and Eight, but don't worry about hunting weapons or getting armed for a fight just yet. Also, I don't know about you guys, but my old bones would sleep better on one of those air mattresses. "

"Gotcha." Nine said. "So, sleeping bags, rain gear, how about ice chests for perishables?"

"I think one of those big ones will do." Will said. "Go ahead and pack it with small stuff, I'll get the ice once we're set back in the cave."

Will wandered around the store, and finally, behind the counter, he came across what he had hoped to find; a small assayer's scale. He put it on the counter and dropped his little ingot onto it. Just over two ounces. He did a quick calculation in his head. The handguns were going to take most of that, and the rest of the stuff would add about two or three hundred to his total. His mind reached back to the gold pocket he had discovered earlier, and retrieved another sphere of gold about the same size as the first.

Holding it in mid-air with his mind, Will applied enough heat to melt the gold into the same shape as the first piece, removing the impurities as he did. He re-absorbed the heat energy and deposited the now-solid ingot beside the other on the scale. Just about four and a half ounces, total. That should cover the cost of their 'purchases' and make it less likely that the proprietor of the store would report a theft. Eventually, he figured the Feds would link this little event to him, but not for a while, and then it would be more misleading than helpful to their search for him and his fellow prototypes.

Taking a pad of paper, he wrote a note and taped it to the phone handset: "Check the register before you call the cops..."

Then, Will 'moved' his small horde of gold into the locked cash drawer.

He double-checked the supplies that Nine had piled in front of the counter, noting with a sad smile that she had added a couple of boxes of the same feminine napkins Karen used to use. "That ought to do it, Nine. Thanks for handling the heavy lifting. Let's get all this stuff back to the cave."

As if it were second nature, he teleported the two of them and the entire pile of gear back to the cave to find Eight juggling four small boulders with his hands in his pockets.

"Still haven't figured out that teleportation thing, Ten," he said, letting the rocks drop to the floor of the cave, "but I can manage telekinesis pretty well. Watch!"

Will felt himself lifted off his feet, and Nine gave a little shriek as she, too was spun into the air. Will laughed and said "Hey, that's pretty good, Eight! Now, will you let us down so we can eat?"

"Nah," Eight replied. "I've got you two where I want you, and I guess this is the time to let you know who's in charge of this outfit."

Shit! Will thought to himself. I had hoped to avoid this little discussion for a while.

Well, Eight, he thought at his captor, I think I have a little to add to this discussion...

With that, he slammed an energy shell around Eight that drew its energy from the heat of the rocks in the surrounding mountains, and from the last rays of the setting sun. Will's energy capsule effectively blocked off any emission from Eight's mind while preventing the flow of energy from other sources to him. With another tendril of his mind's output, he caught Nine and himself, allowing their bodies to settle gently to the floor of the cavern, then collapsed the shell around Eight until there was no air left for him to breathe. Slamming the would-be leader's body against the wall of the cave, Will held him there with enough force to put strain on even his augmented bones and muscles.

Now. He projected into the other's mind, allowing Nine to eavesdrop on the communication. You were saying...?

Jeez, Ten! Eight strained, gasping for air. It was just a little prank! Hell, everybody knew you were going to wind up in the top spot if we came out of the surgery okay, I was just having a little fun!

Will could see in his mind that it was mostly true, but that he had harbored just the tiniest ambition to possibly wind up with a band of three supersoldiers at his command.

"All right, then." He addressed both of the others as he relented and allowed Eight to breathe. "Here's the deal. If you want to stay alive and with your enhancements intact, you take your orders from me. I'm damned if I'm going to turn anyone with your abilities loose on society without some kind of leadership. If you can't handle that, let me know now and I'll reverse the changes and send you on your way."

Nine was staring at him as if seeing him for the first time, and he watched her exchange glances with Eight. Will resisted the temptation to listen in on their thoughts. This had to be their decision, but perhaps there was one thing he could do to help.

I see some doubt in your eyes, he sent to both of them, so look within me and see for yourselves if I'm really crazy. Who knows, maybe all this power has already corrupted me.

He could 'feel' them searching within his thoughts and emotions for his motives and reasoning, and when they withdrew, he said. "Okay, I need your decisions tonight."

Without hesitation, Nine snapped to attention and shouted in her best bootcamp voice, "Staff Sergeant Tina Rosales, reporting for duty, sir!"

"Thanks, Nine." Will said, turning his glance toward Eight.

"Yeah, I guess I'll go along for the ride." He said, extending his hand for shaking. "Lieutenant Thomas Hall, formerly of the United States Marine Corps."

"All right." Will replied, taking his hand. The grip contest was short lived, since Will was the only one of the three who had been working out since their surgery. "I'm Will Masters, once a US Navy pilot. More recently, an out of work Software Engineer."

"What are your orders, sir?" Nine asked.

"First, we're too small a group for that kind of formality." Will replied, "I don't need it for my ego and I think it would just get in the way. Second, I think it would be a good idea if we all pitched in and got this place livable. Since you can move things with your mind, Eight, why don't you distribute our supplies to appropriate places. You and Nine take a sidearm each, just in case you run into any critters that don't respond well to 'shoo.' I'll make a cook stove... How about the top of that broken stalagmite? That area ought to make a decent kitchen."

"That's fine for the here and now," Eight said, "but I think what Nine and I both would like to know is, what are your plans for the three of us?"

"Suppose you had three raw recruits, tremendous potential, but knowing squat about fighting or the military." Will replied. "What would you do with them?"

"Train them, of course." Eight answered. "That's why we have bootcamps and specialty schools."

"Okay," Ten continued, "here I have the three of us. Tremendous potential, but knowing squat about what we are or what we can do. What do you suppose I should do?"

The light came on in both their eyes as his meaning became clear. "Train us, of course! But who's going to train who? It's not like we've got drill sergeant's who've been doing this for years, or anything."

"Then we'll have to train each other." Will said. "The learning curve is pretty steep, but it goes pretty fast. We need to conduct experiments to understand the limits of these abilities, then work up some exercises so we can practice using them in a team effort, and understand how the three of us can be most effective in doing what we were created for."

"Sounds like a plan," Eight said, "when do we start?"

"Tomorrow morning. First we need food and sleep."