HANNAH
Hannah's sedan crossed into New Athens City limits just as dawn broke over the skyline.
The city looked different from her memories of business trips years ago.Military vehicles at every major intersection.Checkpoints every few blocks, manned by officers in tactical gear who watched passing cars with suspicious eyes.Tension hung in the air like humidity before a thunderstorm, and Hannah's powers responded to it, electricity prickling beneath her skin.
Her phone had been exploding with responses to the article since she'd published it.She'd turned off notifications hours ago, but she kept checking anyway, unable to stop herself from reading the messages that poured in.
You're brave for speaking out.My daughter is a Castor and now she's not afraid to tell us.
You're a lying freak who deserves to burn.We know what you really are.
I was at the bank.You were always kind to me.I'm sorry for what they did to you.
We know where you're going.You won't make it to the Gemini compound alive.
She deleted the threats, saved the supportive ones.Evidence for later, if there was a later.
A checkpoint loomed ahead.Hannah slowed, keeping her hands visible on the steering wheel as norm police officers waved her forward.One of them ran her plates while another studied her face through the windshield.She watched his expression change as the computer returned results.
He reached for his radio.
Within sixty seconds, she was surrounded.Six patrol cars, twelve officers, hands on weapons.The morning sun glinted off their badges and the barrels of their guns.
"Hannah Charge."The lead officer's voice carried through her closed window."Exit the vehicle with your hands visible."
Electricity sparked across her knuckles before she could stop it.Stress response.The officers saw it and jumped back, weapons rising.
"Don't make this worse."The officer's voice cracked with fear poorly disguised as authority."Failure to register under the new Supernatural Documentation Protocol is a federal offense."
"I wasn't aware registration was mandatory yet."
"As of six this morning.Emergency measure passed overnight.You're in violation."
Hannah's mind raced.They'd timed this.Protogenus or their allies in the government had pushed through emergency legislation specifically to arrest her before she could reach the Gemini Initiative.Her article had scared them, and this was their response.Make an example of her.Show what happened to supes who fought back.
The lead officer reached for her door handle.
Hannah's hands exploded with electricity.Not an attack, just a barrier of crackling energy that made the officer yank his hand back with a yelp.But they didn't see the distinction.
"Hostile supe.Engaging."
Weapons rose.Safeties clicked off.Hannah stared down a dozen barrels and wondered if this was how it ended, shot to pieces at a routine checkpoint before she ever got the chance to make a difference.
Lightning split the morning sky.
***
GRAY HAD SENSED THEdisturbance from across the city, a spike of electrical energy that called to his own powers like a beacon.
The bond they hadn't acknowledged was already pulling them together.He'd been pacing his office, waiting for Vera's predicted arrival time, when Hannah's electricity surged and his entire being responded with an almost physical tug.He didn't think.He just moved.
The city's power grid became his highway.He dissolved into the electrical current, traveling through cables and transformers and substations at the speed of thought.The world was a blur of voltage and potential, and then he was reforming in a flash of lightning that made every officer at the checkpoint shield their eyes.
"Stand down."His voice carried the weight of command and barely contained fury.Lightning crackled across his shoulders, a warning that needed no translation.
"Sir, she's in violation of..."
"She's with the Gemini Initiative.I'll handle registration."Gray's tone left no room for argument."You have ten seconds to lower your weapons."
