Virals : Evolved

Chapter 1 : Discussions of Insasnity

Excited barking broke me from my thoughts. It appears Cooper has found the boys.

"... And that's why Matt is better at his job than Frank." Hi wraps up an argument I'm glad I missed. "Oh, hi Tory. Shelton and I were just debating..."

"Hi, please, no. I don't want to know, but more importantly I don't want World War III to begin, which is likely to happen given the fury Shelton's directing your way." I reply to Hi, torn between laughing at Shelton's explode-y face, or running in terror. "Hey Shelton, Ben."

Shelton merely glares at me before relaunching his argument with Hi. Ben on the other hand... Well, Cooper appears to be mauling a Ben-shaped human with kisses. The Ben-shaped thing raises a hand in greeting and then returns to wrestling with my pooch. I sink to the sand beside Ben and, ignoring the slobberfest occurring beside me, focus my attention on the simplicity of the waves crashing the shore mere feet in front of me, the sand squishing beneath me, the sharp tang of anger behind me , the cawing of seagulls around us.

Hang on, tang of... nope it's gone again. Sighing, I lie back and direct my focus to the sky. I hear shifting beside me. "Who won?", I ask Ben.

"Coop forfeited. He was distracted by a seagull." Ben replied in an even tone. Silence permeates the air between us, well, apart from the heated disagreement behind us ("Yeah, well at least Frank isn't deluded that what he is doing is right", Shelton).

"What's wrong, Tory?" Ben knows me so well.

"Nothing, Ben, nothing. It's just, I don't know, it's surreal, ya know?"

"Yeah, I get it Tory. This is the first time in how long that everything's just been normal. No insane people trying to exploit us or a megalomaniac with money trying to kill us. I don't know whether to be ecstatic or sad." Ben replies, almost wistfully.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, Blue," And for the sake of friendship, "I had a... weird moment earlier. A few of them actually."

"What's up Tory?", I hear from behind me. It appears World War III has taken a brief break for the good of their mutual allies.

"Well, Ben won the battle between man and beast. In other news, I think I'm losing my mind."

Silence.

"So, Ben, what was the reason for your victory?" I don't know whether to kiss Hi or kick him.

"Tory?" Shelton the ever concerned friend.

"So, I was looking in the mirror and I'm pretty sure my eyes turned blue, and then I imagined I was smelling emotions again, without flaring."

"Well then, I'm insane too. Blue eyes, zoom vision, doubting my sanity. The whole shebang." I'm thinking affection towards Hi.

"Same here, woke up to the power lines again. Didn't see my eye colour, but I had just woken up, so..." Shelton adds.

"I have a little more confirmation in my sanity. It's kind of hard to imagine crushing a doorknob when the evidence is right in front of you." God, I love my boys.

Deep breath, Tory.

"Okay, so the facts." The boys relief that i'm taking control is palpable. "A. Hi and I, at least, have experienced sudden change in eye colour to blue, which, up to this point, hasn't happened before. B. All of us have been able to use our special abilities, for lack of a better term-", Hi starts snickering. A trio of glares in his direction quickly shuts him up. "Anyway, use our abilities without flaring, visually or mentally, right? Anything else?" A quick look around tells me that I'm right.

"Maybe it's just a side effect of the serum?" says Shelton. He has a good point.

"Maybe. But we should still keep stock of everything flare-like just in case. What we were doing before, when it happens, what happens, were we alone or not. We should also probably call Ella and Chance-", collective groans (Cooper included), "-to see if they have experienced any of this or if they know what's going on. All in agreement." Three nods and a bark confirm our game plan.

"When should we call Ella and Chance?" Ben asks.

"We could all do it now," I say directing the comment at Hi, "Then we will all know what's going on. Full disclosure." Nods all around.

"Okay," I say pulling my phone from my pocket, dialling...

"Hello?"

"Hey Ella, it's Tory. The boys are with me."

"Hey Tor, guys. What's up?" A chorus of hello's echo towards the phone.

"This is a little awkward, but we were wondering if you'd been experiencing any... side effects after taking the serum?" I could hear her relieved sigh.

"Yeah. My, uh, my eyes went blue. And I keep running fast. Like, inhumanly fast and I defiantly haven't flared at all." Fear suddenly entered her voice, "Why Tory? What's wrong? Is everyone okay?" Her concern was abnormal but not unwanted.

"We're all fine El. But we've been having side effects too. All our strongest senses are kicking in without flaring. We're about to call Chance. See if he knows anything."

"Alright," she says hesitantly, "Just let me know what you learn, kay?"

"Everything's going to be fine Ella," Hi butts in, "Probably just some withdrawal from our hyped DNA going plain again." Ah, Hi has a way with words.

"Yeah, probably," shouting comes through the speaker, "Look I gotta go. Call me ASAP with any news. Bye guys."

"Bye Ella." We reply, but she was already gone.

"Right. Now onto Chance." The foul language spouting from the boys mouth showed their enthusiasm. "Good to see your priorities are straight. You know, possibly lethal side effects to an unknown drug is obviously less important than a talking to an old enemy." That shut them up.

Dialling Chance's number, I am interrupted by a call from the Lord himself.

"Hey Cha-"

"We need to talk. Now."

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Oooh. Interesting. Very Interesting. The normal comment if you want, I however, value views and votes to the same standard.

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