“A snake? How did that happen? I thought we secured the entrance! Unless…” A large bear came lumbering out through the doorway.

“You remember how much trouble we had getting it to let us in in animal forms. We just coded it to look for human brain waves in the animal. You are sure it came through the door?”

“Yes, Mom.”

The bear turned to face the snake.

“So, what are you really? A shape-shifter? A wizard? Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you. We’ve been hiding long enough ourselves, why would we risk our freedom for a snake?”

Max focused on turning his body back into a human, grimacing when the pain in his feet returned. Stupid feet.

“Hi. Sorry, I did not mean to fall in here.” He pulled himself to a sitting position, still unable to move his legs without great amounts of pain. “I’m Max, a shape-shifter.”

“Well, hello then. I’m Jella, this is my son, Wyatt. We are what you would call Wizards. Really, we just ended up with a smattering of less powerful than normal powers. Like, I turn into a bear and can walk on water, Wyatt turns into a hare and can play with fire. Really, playing is all it is. He can’t do much with it… not even create it.”

“Mom!” The boy now identified as Wyatt complained

“So..you wouldn’t happen to have a healing power in there, would you?” Max asked hopefully.

“No, sorry dear. But we can set your legs properly so they can heal. And you can stay with us, it is perfectly safe here. No one has disturbed us in ten years.”

“Thank you. How did you end up here in the first place though?”

“Same way you did. I was running and hiding, and someone...His father...let me in here. He died five years ago, he never made it back after trying to contact another group of supers not far from here. Turns out they are evil people.”

“I know. I was running from them too. They broke my legs.”

He grimaced as Jella jerked his leg, and with a snap, he could feel the bones re-aligning. She then wrapped them in some green, leaf smelling weave.

“So you never left here?”

“Never. Only to find supplies.”

“Do..you want to join the resistance?”

“The what?”

“It’s something have heard of, from friends and animals alike. There is a group of us wanting to take down the government to fight the anti-supers laws. I was on my way to find them when I fell in here. You should come with me.”

“No, I can’t do that. I can’t risk my son’s safety. But thank you for telling us this. We wish you luck.”

“Max smiled. “So, can I spend the night?”

“You can stay until your legs heal. You can stay forever, as long as you don’t cause trouble. But I know you have to leave soon. At least stay until you can walk again?”

Max nodded. “Sure. Are you sure it won’t be a bother?”

“Only if you become a hindrance.”

Misha seemed to slip into the military life rather quickly. She found herself strutting to her trainings and briefings with a sense of honor, found herself really starting to like her uniform. She now wore her long hair in a single braid down her back, as having it loose interfered with her work. She even had time for her own activities without the fear of being chased or having to move, a luxury she had never had before. Still, she found herself slightly crushed that she could never pursue her dreams to become a neurosurgeon.

Misha spent her free time tracking her past, trying to figure out if she had a connection to this Jack person. All she had been able to figure out was that Jack’s father had shape-shifting powers, which he hid from his family. Jack’s father was declared deceased after being hit by a car. Jack was marked as unknown for development of powers, but it was believed that since his father had powers, the gene was passed onto him and took on a different form. He was marked as an empath, government hired, compliant, special interrogator.

Reading further into his file, she found he had been married and divorced once, had one child, given up for adoption, whereabouts unknown. This lead her to read about his wife,a woman by the name of Maya. She was part of an anti-super activist group, which explained their split. Her file was now marked as a terrorist in custody for bombing civilians in an attempt to get the supers out of hiding. Her mental state was listed as fragile. She felt sorry for Jack, having ever had to know this woman, much less marry her. But it was true that time could change people. Perhaps Jack figuring out his powers is what caused the split?

Misha had had enough of prying into people’s lives. She had just one more person to investigate today. Herself. She pulled up her file, quickly opening back doors to access her ‘classified’ information. She read over it, noting that it listed her as arrested, but highly compliant. To be switched to compliant after first week of duty. Her regular file was rather dull, and it was only when she dug into the classified portions that her eyes widened. Her family portion was inside this area. It formally listed family as unknown, waiting for test results. Inside the classified portion it was marked ‘Jack Huan Whover? -Father. Maya Selma Grange? -Mother’. Could she be related to them? If so, why did they give her up for adoption? It didn’t matter if he was her father. Her real father was the man she was chasing. He was still her number one goal. The buzzer rang in her pocket, indicating she was almost late for combat training. She grabbed her stuff, quickly logged off the records bank, and sprinted to class. Her searches would have to continue another time.

Misha returned to her terminal later that afternoon, the steaming cup of coffee she brought with her meaning that she intended to stay awhile. She had two things to do. Contact Jack, and look into her where her father was.