The Center: Face of the Enemy - Part One by: Enemyoffun One month has passed since escaping the Syndicate and Becca is now in The Center. But everything is far from good. Even though she's escaped the Syndicate, she's not sure if she can trust the Center.

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Author's Note: One chapter post but the beginning of a new story for Becca. Doesn't directly pick up where the last one left off but its pretty close. This isn't going to be as long as the last one but it will have a few parts to it. I decided to go with the picture from the other story but in my next story there will be a new one.

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Chapter One:

I bounced the ball against the dull gray wall and watched it as it rolled back.

“Two hundred and ninety six”

I sighed and scooped it up, bouncing it again. I’d been doing this a lot lately. No I haven’t gone insane and no I’m not doing this for fun. I’m doing it because I don’t have anything else to do. Confused, I bet you are. I’m pretty damn confused too. It probably seems like I’m in prison and that’s not too far off. Well it is but it doesn’t feel that way. They put me in here and when I say they I mean the glorious people of The Center. Yeah that’s right, The Center. Those are the guys we spent so little time looking for, got arrested while trying to find and got sprung from jail by.

Things were going so well too.

________________________

Mrs. Fine used her pull; I’m not sure what it was. But she got me, Barry, Mattie and Clara out of that police station. They snuck us out back so as to avoid attention. They put us into two black SUVs, drove for about an hour then stuck us on a commercial airliner. I’m not even sure where they took us. We were on the plane long enough that I feel asleep. When I woke up, we got off and were ushered into more black SUVs. So far to us The Center was no different than the Syndicate. They were nicer about it but we were being pushed about like we were being kidnapped.

The SUVs drove for a while and by the time we got where we were going it was nightfall.

I can’t really tell you what the building looked. AS soon as we got there we were black bagged and ushered once again somewhere. I could hear my captors complaining. Their Boss kept telling them it was necessary until they could figure out if we were a threat or not. How could we be a threat to them, they were the ones kidnapping us. There were only four of them, besides Mrs. Fine. One of them, I think her name was Dani, kept saying we were scared and confused but were no threat. Mattie kept whispering that she was scared. I would have held her hand but mine were being held behind my back.

These were supposed to be the good guys.

They led us down a lot of winding corridors and off into separate rooms. When the bag was finally pulled off my head, I was sitting on a wooden chair, with a table in front of me. There was a black girl there, she smiled weakly.

“Hi, I’m Dani” she said quietly. “I’m sorry if you think we’re being rough but you have to understand what you are to us”.

I nodded. “I’d do the same thing if our situation was reversed”.

She smiled at that. I think I was going to like her.

We talked for a few more minutes. She told me she was an Empath with precognitive abilities. She wasn’t the one who found me but she was the one who knew I wasn’t a threat. I told her about Clara and she nodded. My friends were safe, according to her. Unlike me they were allowed to go into the normal school environment. But Mrs. Fine and The Colonel labeled me the ring leader and the one to get answers from.

“What do you do?” she asked but I never got a chance to respond.

The door opened and Mrs. Fine entered the room. She was alone which was good because I’m not sure if I could deal with Miss Zappy right now. I was tired of all those girls and their fancy “look at this power”. If they thought they could intimidate me by throwing fireballs or ice or even zapping security cameras, they were wrong. Dani looked at me and smiled. Could she read minds too?

“Danielle, you may leave us now”.

Dani waved and left the room.

Mrs. Fine set a folder on the table in front of us but didn’t open it. For a while we stared at one another, neither saying a word. She was one of those intimidators too but I wasn’t falling for it. After living with those bastards for as long as I did nothing scared me anymore. I think this woman sensed it because she dropped the act and opened the folder. There was a picture of me, Rebecca Howe, and a lot of information. Where the hell do these people get this stuff?

“You leave me in a difficult situation Miss Howe” she said, without emotion. “On one hand you seem to be highly qualified. You have proven to be a competent leader; you have exceptional marksman and mediocre combat skills…”

I scoffed. There was nothing mediocre about them, Gideon was a genius.

Mrs. Fine continued. “But you were a member of the Syndicate. You have a foreign chip of unknown design in your head and one in your wrist. For all we know you can be another spy sent here to try to take us out”.

Another spy? What the hell was she talking about?

“I assure you I’m no spy and I’d never work for those bastards”.

She nodded. “So I’ve been told. Agent Carlson spoke very highly of you in our many debriefs. She’s the only reason you’re not in a cell right now”.

Who the hell was Agent Carlson?

Mrs. Fine gave me a confused look. “Agent Carlson…ummm…” She looked at the folder. “You would have known her as Dr. White”.

Holy shit? Trish, Trish was an Agent. I knew she told me to go looking for Mrs. Fine but I didn’t think she was actually working for her. This was crazy. Why didn’t she tell me? I thought back to our final moments together and maybe she wanted to. She said there were things she wanted to say. I just never thought it would be my name isn’t Trish and I don’t work for the Syndicate.

Mrs. Fine cleared her throat. “Dr. Patricia Marie Carlson, age 28” She was reading it from my file. “We recruited her in her second year of medical school and trained her to be an agent for the Center. We paid for her education, gave her all the right recommendations and then inserted her into the local hospital near the facility where you and your friends were being held. It took nearly two years for them to spot her but they took the bait.

“She was doing a lot of Intel work for us. She hacked their system and began downloading their mainframe onto a flash drive. You know that. But what I’m sure you didn’t know was that every night for the past few weeks, the whole time you were there, she was filling us in on you, the newest student. She took quite a liking to you. She had every intention of bringing you over when she finally left”.

I started to tear up a bit. Even though I was kind of pissed about her lying I was glad to know she really truly cared.

‘She died saving my life”.

Mrs. Fine nodded. “She was a good woman who did her country proud. She will be greatly missed”.

She gave me a few minutes to collect myself as I continued to cry.

Then she asked about her stupid flash drive.

_______________________________

That stupid conversation took place a month ago.

They stuck me in this room because I wouldn’t cooperate with them. I refused to hand over the flash drive. It was my only leverage. These people kidnapped me, tried to strong arm me and interrogated me. I wasn’t going to hand them over the only thing I knew they wanted. If they wanted to play hardball then so could I. They tried talking to me a few more times but I refused. Until they showed me some decency and respect they weren’t getting their hands on this damn thing.

That didn’t mean they didn’t try. A couple of days ago, they tried to send someone in to retrieve it when they thought I was sleeping. I heard him coming a mile away, he smelled pretty bad too. I broke his nose. Hey I’m not a bitch but no one messes with my stuff unless I give them permission to do so.

There was a knock on the door and my ball bounced away.

Damn it, now I’m going to have to start counting all over.

The door opened and Dani was there. She had come every single day. She was sweet and cute but that wasn’t going to work on me either. Today she had my food tray and something else. She placed the tray on the little table they had for me. On the tray was the typical stuff that passed for cuisine around here. It was a lot better than the crap the Syndicate served. On the tray today was a folded slip of paper. Dani waited while I picked it up and unfolded.

It was a letter from Mattie.

I smiled. She told me how well she was adjusting. She said they were all doing well and that this place was a thousand times better than the Syndicate. She went on and on about it for a while. Toward the end she told me to stop being an ass and give them what they wanted. I could almost hear her whispering: “They’re not the bad guys Becca, they actually want to help” as I read it.

“She’s a sweet girl, your friend Mattie” said Dani as she took the letter from me.

“Unless you piss her off” I said.

Dani laughed. “She has nothing on Kris”.

Dani left and I ate. I only ate half of it. I couldn’t stop thinking about the letter and wondered what Trish would have wanted me to do. She told me to get the flash drive to Mrs. Fine. But how did I know we were in the right place. For all I knew this could be another Syndicate facility and all of this some kind of elaborate trap. Dani seemed sincere and the letter from Mattie seemed genuine enough but those things could be faked too. Hell, look at how long Declan and Scarlet were faking the people at the Syndicate. I couldn’t trust these people, not yet.

I lay down and went to sleep.

I was woken a few minutes later by the pounding on my door. I opened my eyes, groggy. Why the hell would they pound on it, I was their prisoner? I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I could hear some one out in the hall breathing. By the sound of it he was a man. I groaned, realizing why the person knocked. I got out of bed and put on my sweatpants. I’ve taken to sleeping in a t-shirt and panties (argh, I said it again, I think I’m thoroughly brainwashed to say it now).

“You can come in”.

The man who poked his head into the room was baby faced, wearing some kind of uniform. He looked into the dark and I could see he was having no such luck. He started to fumble along the wall for the switch. His fingers landed on it.

“You flip it, you lose your hand” I snapped.

He pulled his hand away quickly. “I’m sorry Miss, but they want you”.

“Who wants me?”

This was a first. Maybe they were going to finally let me out of here.

“The Colonel and Mrs. Fine”.

I put on my coat and gloves. I didn’t bother to change out of my sweatpants and cami top (yeah I know) but I did put on my boots. I don’t go anywhere without them. I still didn’t have a pair of sunglasses so I made the guy give me his. They weren’t too bad but I was still having a hell of a time. The hall was too bright and at one point I had to actually grab his arm. He looked a little confused but I quickly pointed it out. He nodded and then gave me this pitying look. He’s so going to get punched in the face if he keeps it up.

The Center was much brighter than the Syndicate. That was made very apparent by the windows in the halls and actually decorations. I could smell flowers in the distance. The floors were tile though but looked to be polished daily. The walls, at least in this hall, were painted a beige color. It looked almost homely and not some government mutant training facility. Ok maybe that was a little much but it sure felt like some girl was going to run through the wall. I got a pang thinking that. God I miss Max.

My escort, who introduced himself as Private Samson, led me to a room at the end of the hall. He told me to go in. I didn’t hesitate and opened the door. There were four people present, sitting around a circular table, all of them were wearing these really small, really cool looking glasses. Two of them I recognized: Mrs. Fine and that electro girl Kris. The other two not so much. The man was tall and foreboding, with a scar on his face. He looked military; he also looked like he could break me in half. I’m guessing he was the Colonel. The other was a girl with flaming red hair, sitting with her left foot up on a chair. She wasn’t wearing a shoe and it was wrapped in a bandage.

She was dressed in exercise clothes and from the looks of it, the injury appeared fresh.

“Miss Howe, I’m Colonel Harris, welcome to the Center”.

I grunted. There was nothing welcoming about this place that I could see.

Ok so I’m being a bitch but I have a reason. It was my time of the month, the first time of the month. Dani helped me out when it came on yesterday morning. I never felt more embarrassed in all my life. She tried to reassure me that everything was going to be ok and that it was natural but all I could do was cry. Damn female hormones. She brought me some feminine hygiene products and held me while I cried.

The Colonel ignored my attitude. “Take a seat, Miss Howe. We have some questions before we get started”.

I reluctantly did as I was told. That Kris girl gave me the evil eye. I don’t know what the hell her problem was. The Colonel began grilling me on my involvement in Syndicate activities. I thought we went over all this when they debriefed me a day after I arrived. Right after I refused to play ball with them. He wanted to know how much I knew about their retrieval tactics. I didn’t know anything and I told him so. But then I remembered Holly’s story and told him that. I told him my story too for posterity. He nodded, I’m not sure if he was impressed or not. He asked me similar questions, most of them about the Syndicate. Was I now their resident expert or something?

“You must understand” said Mrs. Fine “we’ve only had one encounter with them thus far”.

I nodded, waiting for her to elaborate but she didn’t. How rude was that?

“Your friends tried to help us but they seemed to think you knew more than them” continued Mrs. Fine.

Those cowards, especially Mattie and Barry. They were at the Syndicate for over three years; surely they knew more than I did.

I finally took my stab at a question: “What do you know about them?”

“They like to spy on us” fired Kris.

So that’s what her problem was, she thought I was some kind of spy? I guess I could see things from her point of view. After all I was from a criminal organization even though the only criminal act I performed there was breaking out of it.

“We can’t discuss specifics with you” said the Colonel “but suffice to say we’ve had a few run ins with them”.

I took a stab in the dark. I needed these people to trust me. “Arizona or Maine?”

That got a lot of gold fish looks.

“How do you know about Arizona?” snapped Kris.

“What about Maine?” asked Mrs. Fine.

The Colonel said nothing. But he stared at me, trying to size me up. I stared right back. After going toe to toe with Gideon, this guy was like a kitten.

They grilled me on what I knew. I told them that I heard about the places from a third party. I wasn’t sure if I should tell them about Declan but I did. I was in the sharing mood apparently. As soon as I told them about Declan though it became a flood gate. I didn’t cover any of it in my debriefing because I didn’t think it was necessary. But they did. They asked me questions for about an hour, even Kris seemed to get into it. She seemed particularly interested in my explanation about the Black Suits. She even wanted to know how many Dominators and telepaths the Syndicate employed. I only knew a few, Holly being one of them.

I didn’t tell them where Gideon took Holly and the others. I didn’t think it was their right to know. Clearly Gideon had his reasons for splitting us up, besides the obvious. Maybe he didn’t want everyone at the Center? Maybe my assumptions about these people were correct? Or maybe I was being a paranoid ass and needed to trust someone. So far I was one for three on the whole trusting grownups thing. But maybe I could trust Kris? That is if she got over the fact that I was some evil bitch trying to stab her in the back.

“I think we’ve taken up enough of Miss Howe’s time with questions”.

The Colonel nodded. “At 0600 hours this morning, we received Intel that another Emerged was going to appear in_____ Vermont. Kris and her team are prepped and ready to go but as you can see we have a slight problem”.

“I’m sorry boss” said the red head. “I came down on it wrong but it’s only a sprain. I should be up and about in a week, I think”.

Mrs. Fine looked at me. “That’s where you come in Howe”.

Kris grumbled and grinded her teeth, clearly she was well aware of our mission.

I smirked at her and she glared at me. What the hell was her problem?

“That may be but her abilities make her ideal to take over for Lara”.

Kris grumbled. I gave her the biggest smile I could muster. But to tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go off with her either. She clearly didn’t like me and let’s face it, I didn’t like her either. She pranced around here like she ran the place and when Lara looked at her you could tell that she felt subordinate to her. I definitely didn’t want to have to deal with another Beatrice.

‘Lara” said the Colonel “perhaps you can take Miss Howe to Wardrobe then get her prepped for the mission”.

____________________________________________

“Do you have to wear that big black coat all the time?”

I nodded.

“That’s gotta suck”.

Lara and I stuck back by the wall as the hyper friendly and extremely energetic girl tore through the racks of clothes, looking for something for me to wear. I’m not sure what the whole purpose of this room was. It looked like a huge clothing warehouse. There were so many clothes here that there was something to fit everyone’s style. I wonder what Mattie thought of this place. I’m sure there was a lot of squealing and jumping.

I just hoped I didn’t have to wear one of those uniforms everyone else was wearing.

When Lara and I left the conference room (I guess you can call it that), we went up a flight of stairs and into the main area of the place. Lara tried to fill me in as best she could. The Center was a place for Emerged (that’s what they called us) to live their lives and learn to control their “gifts”. Then when they hard control, they were allowed to be returned to society. It was almost exactly like the Fake Zero told me. Except Zero (Scarlet) threw in that nasty bit about evil governments and being experiments. I wonder if she was referring to this place. Though I’d spent nearly a month isolated from people, it didn’t seem overly evil here.

Except those uniforms, they were downright criminal.

The girl, Heather I think her name was, produced a pair of form fitting black pants and a long sleeved black turtle neck. She told me black was definitely my color. I’m glad somebody agrees with me. I took the clothes from her and looked around for a place to change. I found a changing room in the corner and reluctantly entered it. When I came out pulling my shirt on, they gasped.

“Where did you get those scars and bruises?” asked Heather.

“Is that a tazer burn?”

I looked down at my body, seeing for the first time what they were talking about. I saw the tazer burn and grimaced. Then I saw the scars and still visible bruising from my near misses during the escape. Most of them were from when Natasha tried to kill me. I looked down at my foot and should have seen the scar where she tried to skewer me with her stiletto but there was nothing there. Shortly after I arrived there was a girl who called herself a Healer and once she was done, no more stiletto mark. My leg was unblemished too, not even one of those off colored scars you see in movies. That kind of annoyed me; it was the one scar I was hoping to have. Trish died because of that and I was hoping for the reminder. I know I’m the only one who wants to be reminded about the bad things.

I started to tear up.

“You ok?” asked Heather as she put a hand on my back.

“Bad memories” I said and left it at that.

As I put my boots back on they told me all about The Center and its many secrets. They called them secrets anyway. I’m glad they didn’t think I was some kind of spy. But they were a bit forthcoming. They told me everything, including some embarrassing moments. This sounded like a fun place and I think I could fit in here. But I still wasn’t ready to trust them. I was waiting for the “but”. You know: “You can live here and learn here but”. So far my experiences at these two places were very similar, even if The Center had a nicer approach.

Lara and Heather talked for several minutes. I only half listened though. I was convinced that this little bit of freedom was short lived and once my mission was over, it was back in the “box”. When the girls started talking about abilities, I listened. It was a good idea to know what you might be facing if things came to do. They only talked about themselves unfortunately. Lara was a Tracker, I’m not exactly sure what that meant but it sounded like something I might be able to do. I could see why they needed me to replace her on the mission. Heather, on the other hand, was going to be a big problem for me. She was a photokinetic. I was paying enough attention in the Priss’ class to know that that mean light. She was going to have to be someone I avoided if the situation took a turn for the worse.

“What’s your power, Becky?”

I cringed. Not Becky, please not Becky.

“I prefer Becca” I said quietly. She apologized. I cleared my throat. “I’m Super Senses Girl”.

I don’t think Heather got it but Lara did. Her face lit up with a giant smile.

“No wonder they wanted you to replace me” she said “are all of them enhanced”.

I nodded. “I have a great nose, great eyesight, can see in the dark, can’t feel cold or the heat, I have super hearing and can suppress pain”.

“What does that mean?” asked Heather.

I looked around the room and tried to find something. I found a wire hanger and figured it would probably work. I scrapped it across my arm, leaving a nice scratch that welled with blood. I didn’t flinch and never felt a thing. It was amazing how it worked. Before I had to concentrate but now it seemed to come naturally to me. I told them I felt nothing and they seemed pretty impressed. They asked if I’d felt any of the scars that I had.

“Only the emotional ones”.

They both gave me a hug. I’m seriously going to find that t-shirt.

After that Lara led me out of the room. Heather followed, talking about how weird it was that the light bothered me. Apparently she and every other student in the place were already debriefed on my disability. Now all of them can stay and point and murmur, “there goes the Vampire freak”. I hated the fact that the light was my enemy. Besides my coat and gloves, I was completely vulnerable to it. Maybe they can cure me? Maybe that Healer girl can do it, she made my would be scars disappear. Or maybe I was just grasping at straws.

We went down another hall and then into another room. It was some kind of Mission prep room or something. Since I wasn’t an official member of Alpha Team I didn’t need anything in there. Lara did try to talk me into some combat boots. But I refused; nothing comes between me and my boots. I told her so and she raised her eyebrow. Heather laughed and told me she thought were my boots were cute. I looked at my feet. They were kind of cute.

“And here’s the weapon room” said Lara, stopping at the next door. “Now usually we wouldn’t be giving you a gun but I have my orders. The Colonel says you're the best marksman he’s ever seen”.

“How does he know?”

Lara and Heather shrugged.

Photo Credit: MeetMeByTheLake2Nite