They pulled up in front of a single story building that looked newly built amid the worn and faded houses of what could only be an alley.  It looked to be a converted double car garage but had been given a broad bay window, fresh siding and a new coat of blue trim.  Nat unfolded from the driverside and gestured to the building.

            “This is home, come on in.”

            Wren came around the car and slipped a key into the lock.  She stepped inside while Nat held the screen door open.

            “First rule, wipe your feet and take off your shoes.  We hate sand.”

            Dutifully the five guests kicked off their shoes just inside the door and entered to find a surprisingly neat living room.  Wren moved to a small kitchen and pulled open the refridgerator.

            “We have sodas, fruit juice and ice water, please help yourselves.”

            “The bathroom is down the hall, last door on the right and if you make a mess, you’d better clean it up or you might find yourself stuck to the ceiling,” Nat said.  “Literally.”

            “What do you mean?” Slater stood beside Alicia glancing around the house.

            “If everyone will have a seat,” Nat said, pointing at the couch and two arm chair, “We can get started.”

            “Started with what?” Chris asked.

            “Really introducing ourselves,” Wren said, handing Nat a bottle of orange juice.  She took a seat in one of the recliners.

            Alicia took one end of the couch and Slater settled beside her, their thighs touching.  Fuji took the other end of the couch and Josh dropped into the remaining chair.

            “Sorry, we’ll get another chair in a day or two,” Nat said pulling one of three bar stools lined up before the breakfast counter over for Chris.

            She sat.

            “We’ve all met now, under the critical eye of Agent Miller, which means we’ve told each other nothing about ourselves.  We’re supposed to be a team but we have no idea what each of us can do.  The real reason Wren and I invited you all here is to remedy that without Miller’s snooping.  I’m not saying we need every little secret but we do need to know what each of us is capable of doing.  I can lift an aircraft carrier.”  Nat paused then dropped to one knee and grew.

            Chris gasped as Nat seemed to double his size.

            “Holy shit!” Josh gapped.

            Nat returned to his normal seven foot and stood up.

            “I can grow to about ten feet and I get stronger when I do.  I can jump something like 5 miles and carry … well, all of you.  I can hold my breath for hours and poison and chemicals don’t effect me.  Plus, I am bulletproof up to probably anti tank rounds.”  He looked over to Wren.

            “I can control gravity,” she began and Chris realized everything and everybody in the room was hovering a foot off the floor.  “I can make you weightless or slam you into the ground.  I can also create a gravity well strong enough to warp space around me to either protect myself or repulse things fired at me.”

            “She can also lift someone into the air for a mile or couple and drop them,” Nat added.

            “I don’t like that one, Nathaniel,” Wren grimaced.

            “She would prefer not to kill anyone,” Slater said nodding his head.

            “Who is next?” Nat scanned faces.

            Fuji bounced up and tucked her Gameboy into a pocket.

            “I can control wind,” she said.  “So anything a tornado can do, I can do, including flying.”  She dropped back into the chair as she pulled the Gameboy out.

            Josh stood and cleared his throat.

            “I control electicity,” he said.  “Lightning bolts, all that, and I can sorta teleport.”  There was a crack and he vanished reappearing in front of the refridgerator.  “Anyone want anything?”

            “Orange juice, please,” Alicia said in a soft voice.

            “Sounds good,” Slater agreed.

            Josh held out a bottle toward Chris and she nodded.

            “Fuji?”

            “Any tea?”

            “Cliché much?” Josh grinned and found a bottle of green tea.

            Once he’d passed everything out and reseated himself, Slater rose.

            “Okay, nobody freak out …” He pulled a pocket knife out and unfolded the blade.  Holding out his hand, palm up, fingers spread, he stabbed his palm.  Everyone gasped but Alicia came to her feet and grabbed his fingers.  A thin line of blood slowly disappeared.

            “Doesn’t that hurt?” Josh said.

            “Like hell,” Slater agreed.  “But only for a minute or so.”

            “Please don’t do that again,” Alicia whispered.  She was as white as a sheet.

            The slightly jockular tone of Slater’s voice changed to concern.

            “You okay?” He took her by the shoulders and settled her back into the couch.

            “I can't stand the sight of blood, not even hamburger.”  She was trembling.

            “I didn’t know,” he said.  “I’ll never do that again.”

            “So, you heal fast,” Josh said.  “So your power is to absorb damage?”

            “No, that was, I thought, just for fun,” he was gazing into Alicia’s striken face.  “My real power is all in the mind,” he continued.  “I can stun people with a thought, I can scrabble the neutrons in their brains, I can even kill I suppose, if I try hard enough.”

            “So can I,” Alicia said in a whisper.  “I can form a tiny piece of stuff inside someone’s brain, or I can turn them to stone.  I can also do this …” She vanished.

            “Cool!” Josh was sitting forward on the edge of the couch.

            Alicia reappeared in the kitchen.

            “Teleport too,” Nat asked?

            She nodded her head.  “I can walk through walls and stuff too.”

            Chris stared at the goth girl, her mind reeling.  Alicia could go anywhere, get into anything.  She blinked and realized everyone was staring at her.  She stood slowly.

            “I’m not a meta,” she said.  “I can’t fly, or lift bulldozers, or walk through walls, or go invisible … I’m just a normal girl that God has chosen to fight vampires and demons.”

            “There are vampires?”

            “And demons?”

            Chris nodded.  “And I am supposed to hunt them down and destroy them.”

            “Without powers?” Josh said.

            “I have my combat training.”

            “Have you encountered any vampires yet?” Nat asked.

            She shook her head.  “Not yet.”

            “Well, there’s a couple of downers!”  Josh flopped back.  “Vampires and demons.  I guess my father was right?”

            “Your father?”  Chris looked at him quizically.

            “Preston John Temple.”

            “Oh, my …” was all Chris could get out.  She’d read about Preston Temple, a TV evangelist of the more questionable type.  A real 'I can get you into Heaven for only $99.99’ type.  He had died in an electical house fire a couple of months ago as she recalled.  Electrical … She stared at Josh.

            “He beat my mother, he beat my sister … and he was gonna rape her,” Josh said in a flat voice.  “I didn’t know anything about metas and powers and that kinda shit … Miller said he’d cover it all up …”

            Chris’ eyes narrowed.  “It wasn’t you fault,” she said.  “And if any one of you has a problem with that, you can deal with me.”

            Nat and Wren met her gaze and didn’t flinch but she read no condemnation in either of them.  Fuji was obviously struggling with the idea.

            “There is the police,” she began.  “The law, courts …”

            “So I let him rape my sister while I wait for the cops to show up?”

            “I do not believe in killing either, Fuji, but he is right.  He couldn’t stand by and let her be … hurt.”  Tears washed streaks of black down her cheeks.

            Nat squatted to get to eye level.

            “It is only a matter of time before we all come to that point, a point where our actions can save lives possbily at the cost of others.