The Edited

Chapter 2

The sunlight trickled down in between a few stray clouds to provide light to the commuters that were now more numerous on their way about their day. Quinn thought about how they all probably held these nominal little jobs, completed a day's work, and then headed back home. She almost envied how simple their lives must be and how ironic it was that those without abilities now had the simpler lives. They would return home to snug houses and a loving family. Sure, there was still the fighting that rolled through towns and the threat of a perilous future in the hands of the Opposition. But no one was actively terrorizing them, no one was trying to take away their free will, no one was forcing their families to hide underground.

As she strolled along, she let the sunlight hit her face and warm her body and her thoughts. She may not have the little cookie cutter family to return home to, but at least Quinn had her morning meetings with Kristen. Kristen was practically family even if she wasn't family in the biological sense. Kristen and Quinn knew everything about each other and could always count on one another as partners in crime. The two were a perfect balance of strengths, both the innate and those that had been edited into them when they were tiny balls of cells. Kristen, her brain virtually a computer, and Quinn with her physical abilities were destined to complement each other before either was an embryo with eyes and ears, before the world was faced with the demise of human freedom, before either of them found a purpose for their abilities.

Before this purpose, Quinn had always been thankful to her parents for giving her such fun tools. They were gifts that enabled her to live a fairly normal life but just with some advantages. Some of those with mental edits, like Kristen and her pair of computing abilities, were never able to shut down their brains and just live. Turning her face to the sun and breathing in the crisp morning air, she remembered how nice it was to just live.

That's what they were fighting for after all. No more hiding. Getting life back to the way it was.

A flash of movement in her periphery snagged her attention. A man exited the shop to her right, a bag slung over his shoulder. But it wasn't the bag that caught her attention. It was the twist of his hand as the door shut behind him, the unique movement that an ordinary person would likely overlook. It was a movement that she was quite familiar with. The door was shut and locked without the help of keys. An Edited with a manipulation ability.

The man stepped out of the entrance and turned down the alley beside the shop without a single glance to his surroundings. An Edited who wasn't paranoid about who might have seen him use his ability. He had to be Opposition.

"What are you up to," she mumbled to herself, checking behind her before ducking into the alley after him.

The man was halfway down the dark street when Quinn stepped around the corner. It was a narrow alley, buildings blocking any of the growing daylight from lighting her way. She would be happy if he would proceed a little faster. The street was a gloomy, trash and dumpster-filled hell. And it stunk like it too.

But of course, he took his sweet time. Still not hiding his ability, he was seemingly looking for something. Or someone. He lifted a stack of boxes and peered behind, shifted trash in a dumpster before moving to another.

He would be easy to approach. Alone. Already fairly hidden in this dump of an alleyway. But she needed one answer first.

"What else are you hiding?" She moved closer, taking care to stay in the shadows. The manipulation ability was definitely there, he was doing all this searching without touching a single thing, but what was the second ability? Teleportation and she'd be screwed. He'd pop out of there before she could get a hand on him. Or worse, teleport behind her and gain the upper hand before she could blink. It was normal to fear the unknown but even more so when that unknown could have impact on her lifespan.