Mike sat on his bed, his opened duffel bag and boxes on the floor around him. The day had been rather uneventful... thankfully. Someone had helped him find his room, which at the moment was all he really needed. The rest of the day he'd spent feeling the place out with his powers, first from a distance in his room, then out among the other students once he thought he could handle it. It was still something to get used to, but he was fairly sure he could get used to the emotions here.

With the late afternoon sun hitting his back through the window, he focused on the task at hand, the boxes and bag on the floor. As he turned his attention to each box in turn, a few of the top items would float out, then glide across the room to whatever place he intended for them. A laptop computer settled itself in on the desk, plugged into the wall (after he finally gave up and plugged all the peripherals into it by hand), his clothes hung themselves in their places in the closet and the drawers, his stereo arranged itself on a shelf he'd mounted high on the wall, and various other odds and ends sorted themselves into drawers. From the last box, a small metal strongbox floated into view.

Michael frowned as it floated over to him. He opened it up, making sure everything was still in place. Birth certificate, passport, various records... all of the papers his father had been keeping. Michael had known what it amounted to when he'd been given the box. His father wanted the 'mutant problem' in the family to just fade away... one way or another. He'd hoped that Mike would just get himself under control, stop being so obviously different, and that the problems would disappear. Since that wasn't going to happen...

Mike looked around the room again. "I'd better not mess this up, this is the only home I'm likely to have for a while."

He reached into the backpack behind him and pulled out a checkbook and all the cash he'd managed to gather together before he'd been cut off from his family's resources. The checking account was in his name... his father's liberal spending meant he had rarely needed his own money, so his mother had had him save every dollar he got. Still, it was small consolation to have a decently funded bank account when you've been cut off from all the ties you've managed to make in your life.

He threw the checkbook and most of the cash into the box, locked it, and sent it floating to a drawer in his desk. Lying down, he closed his eyes, freeing his mind to see what he could feel happening in his new home.

Mike's room was neat, as always, as he led Daria into it. He tossed his bag onto a chair next to the door and closed the door behind them. "Okay, you're dying to tell me something, what's up?"

Daria laughed. "You sound like a school girl!" she said.

"Not necessarily dying...I just feel bad that I couldn't help out there." She said seriously. "But there is one way for me to help." She placed her bag on Mike's bed and placed her laptop on her lap. As it powered up she spoke. "I have acess to a frequently updated military record system. when I saw general whitmore I knew I had seen his face before. and i had.. I had read his Military profile." She knew the whole thing was sketchy and would take a lot of explaining. "I'm not at liberty to discuss everything. But I spent some time in nevada at a military base-I know i have no need to tell you not to repeat that-I wasn't supposed to be there but then again, I wasn't supposed to exist. In exchange for taking a few tests I was given the job as communication coordinator which is a fancy way of saying secretary. I learned alot about computers then and made a new friend." She began to type on the key board to bring up the relevant information.

"There was a lot of...experimenting going on a couple of years ago. It had to do with trying to simulate the genetic mutations that caused superhuman powers, But the process was so misunderstood that it was supposed to be abandoned. But not everyone abandoned it. They created project hybrid rose: it was supposed to be the first of indestructable super soldiers. Her name was Ren. She wasn't a mutant so to speak but she was immortal. That's not the best attribute to give an experiment. Anyway she managed to develop human feelings and turned on her creators-typical. But although she was destroyed..or..put into submission..there were still some scientists intent on finding a way to give the military soldiers to rival mutants. I was wondering if general whitmore was invlolved in the plan. It would make sense; what better way to rival mutants than with mutants?"

"God..." Mike muttered, trying to even comprehend the implications of all this, even while he read over the documents she brought up. "I... wow, this is just..."

He shook his head, pulling out his cell phone. It was time to follow up on his first instincts from back in the infirmary. "See if you have anything else, this will only take a few minutes."

He dialed a number, then waited for a few minutes.

"Hello, is Judge Asters in? No, I don't have an appointment, I- what? Look, I don't need an ap- Come again? Yes, do take a damn message, tell him his grandson is calling. Hm? No, it's Michael, Johnny doesn't have this number. Oh, hi, Beth, I didn't know it was you either. I don't know how my father's doing. Why? Because he w- Beth, will you just get my grandfather for me, please?"

He looked slightly irritated throughout the whole exchange, and was evidently put on hold while Beth tried to get his grandfather. As he waited, he covered the mouthpiece and looked back over at Daria's questioning gaze. "My grandfather is a justice in the US Court of Appeals in D.C. Worked his way on up from the state courts in New York, and lots of people owe him favors. He won't be able to find out anything that's as secret as what you've got there, but he might be able to find out the less covert side of what General Whitmore is doing. He- Hello?" He snapped the phone back up to his ear, "Oh... Guess I should've expected that. How long? All day? Big case, huh? Yeah, that does sound like him... all right, I'll leave a message, how often does he check his voicemail? Yeah, that sounds like him, too. Just tell him I called, then, and that it's important. Yes, on my cell. He has the number. Okay, thanks."

He hung up the phone, trying not to seem disappointed. He sat down on the bed and shrugged it off. "He probably wouldn't have wanted to talk to me anyway, my dad's probably got the whole family up in arms at me. What've you got?"

Daria shook her head, slightly, perplexed.

"Well, the document I showed you was just an overall report done on the situation. What I need to find is an actual lab report that has to do with that experiment. It would list the doctors working for the case and the militants involved. What i find interesting is that General Whitmore was threatened with a dishonerable discharge right before he made General. That's like getting fired in the army." She showed Mike the general's profile. "The date that he was promoted matches the time around which project Hybrid rose was about to be tested. It was a "hush hush" situation so to speak which explains why when the plan backfired he wasn't fired as well. This all means two things to me, given the information that I have so far. Number one No one in who is in a higher rank knows why Hybrid Rose failed, at least no one who is honorable. That leads to the second theory. In order for General Whitmore to avoid discharge and be propmoted he had to do something amazing and valuable. I think that" Daria said proudly "he promised super soldiers and when his plan back fired he decied to take mutants. Now that only explains a very small part of his major plan. I mean this is under the impression that he is working hand in hand with the government but it's obvious he's doing something shady on the side. So he may have something more in store for the mutants he plans to brainwash."

"Wonderful, just wonderful," Mike muttered, skimming the reports as she showed them to him. "And this is the guy who's paying us social calls. Maybe next time I'll have a chance to rummage around in his brain a bit." He sat on his bed, a somewhat dazed look on his face. "You know, I thought that the fight with Kage was bad, but THIS..." He shook his head, "This is definitely bad. Now the question is what to do about him."

Daria shrugged. She still felt bad about the battle. She had a painful lack of confidence when it came to her ability; she still wished she had a power like Mike's or that she could control an element or enrgy source.

"That depends. If fighting is an option I probably can't help." she laughed half-heartedly. "But, seriously, more research, I mean I'd like to know what Tricity knows about him. It might help me narrow the search.

"Poor Tricity, I know about how she has issues with her powers. She's gonna need us around. I had no clue the older students had so much responsibility around here."

"Well, she doesn't like to make us help, but there isn't much else that she can do, since her power's out of whack until the b-" Mike caught himself at the last minute before he said something he wasn't supposed to. "But, still... God, this has been a messed up week. First a dragon, then psychotic military men, then an assassin. If I wake up and find a Sentinel looking through my window, I quit."

"Assasin? That's who that woman was! Why was she trying to kill Tricity?" Daria asked absent mindedly searching through records to see if anything struck a memory cord. She kept the screen slightly tilted so that Mike could see too.

"That's the question of the hour. She was paid to do it, but either doesn't know or won't say who. All we have to go by is that the person is well-off enough to pay one and a half million to have Tricity killed, and that his or her initials are E.L."

Daria thought for a minute. "Hired assassin? One and a half million dollars...E.L..." Sorry to sound like a parrot.

"what is her name?"

"Don't remember, I was preoccupied while all of this was going down. She's annoying, though... copies any powers you use on her. Took three of us to put her down quickly." He shook his head, then put his hand on hers to stop her searching. "Let's worry about this later. The kids are probably trashing the kitchen by now. We'll think of something."

Daria nodded.

"That's such a cool power" she blurted before she could help herself. "You know...if it were in different hands." She wiggled he ears. "I wonder if she could copy mine since they come from a physical mutation? I'd like to meet her, if she's still here. I'll have to talk to Tricity. If there she can give me a name I might know someone who can find out soemthing about her."

Daria closed her laptop and pushed it back in her bag. "Yeah, we should go help Tricity as much as we can"

Mike just sat on his bed for a minute, running everything through his head. He'd expected to possibly fight Kage today. What he got was much, much more hard to process.

Government or military people were trying to kidnap and control mutants.

The bastard had tried to use Tricity and her baby as hostages.

He'd been shot at.

He'd been ten seconds from snapping the general's neck, or something much more unpleasant.

Someone had tried to assassinate Tricity.

Somehow, he'd been blocking most of it out of his head to deal with it. Now it just came crashing in on him. Closing his eyes, he braced his elbows on his knees and buried his face in his hands.

Daria was completely caught off gueard by Mike's sudden break down. Mutation or no mutation she was still who she was; a caring loving ..well, girl. She abandoned her bag and moved closer to Mike, wrapping an arm around him and pulling him close until his head rested on her chest.

"Mike? Mike, baby, what's wrong?"