Shimmer *The Seattle Superheroes*

Chapter Thirty Eight: The End in the Beginning

Chapter Thirty Seven: The End of the Beginning

Seattle; July 27, 2010; 1:37 p.m.

The seventh floor of the ISDA headquarters was more crowded than it had ever been. The reception desk sat empty, as it had always been, but the waiting room was packed full.

The people they had rescued from the Research Facility had been checked by Nash immediately to determine who had, in his words, 'drunk the Kool Aide,' and who was being forced to help SEEL against their will. The former, who made up quite a small portion, were being held in the specialized cells in the subfloors while the later were taken up to the seventh floor. There, they were each being taken in to a conference room individually to give a statement and have their relatives located.

Brady Chiles, taking his role as Spiderman very seriously, was attempting to do anything he could to help the Superheroes who had saved him. Shimmer, after trying unsuccessfully to convince him to sit and wait for five minutes, gave up and tasked him to help the ISDA interns as they circled the room, making sure that the rescued subjects were made comfortable.

With the help of Patrick, Nash had made the trip in person to inform Jana that her son was fine and in custody, though she couldn't see him until he had been processed and released.

Rena's fiancé was a different matter. Roger Evans was a mystery to them; he hadn't particularly wanted to help SEEL, but they hadn't threatened him or forced him to continue his research in any way. The only thing Nash could find was that he was truly passionate about his work. No one was quite sure whether or not to consider him a part of SEEL or not, and so he was being held until a deeper inquiry could be made.

Shimmer was not looking forward to telling this to Rena.

Her mind was still a mess of confusion. Nash had left the memory that the other Telepath had planted, and she couldn't stop herself from replaying it over and over again. She was no longer telepathically compelled to believe it, and the mere fact that Nash hadn't erased it completely was testament to his loyalty, but it sat in her head like a nightmare that she couldn't forget.

Fortunately for her, she had a distraction. In addition to keeping an eye on the small legion of secrecy sworn agents who were sifting through the mountains of data they had taken from SEEL, she and Nash had to be present for nearly all of the interviews. As the stories began pouring forth and the data began to make sense, a picture of SEEL was forming.

With every new victim, she hated them more and more.

Interview 1:

"I'm not really sure what happened," the woman muttered. "One second, I was walking back to my car from the convenience store, and the next... I was in that room. They said that I didn't have any powers... well, I could have told them that. I thought that then they would let me go, but they just kept me locked up there, with everyone else. They took my blood a few times, skin samples here and there, but nothing too bad. Not like what they did to some of the others."

"Did they ever say anything to you?"

The woman thought. "Not for some time. How long was I in there?"

"Approximately three months."

"Oh, wow," the woman sighed. "I thought it was longer. It felt like longer. They'd usually only say things like 'hold still,' or 'extend your arm.' It was weird, like they didn't even think of me as human."

In the corner of the room, Shimmer sighed. That was exactly what they thought of her as. Human, and second rate.