Tabitha nodded and stepped away from the bio mat. "That is easily arranged." She tapped a few buttons on the nearby touch screen console. The large spacious white room had several more such bio mats as well as bio tanks. The one he was on had a see through force field close over it allowing the temperature inside to be controlled. She turned up the heat a bit to slowly start warming him up. Who said money couldn't buy everything?

Renee stood watching as Tabitha pushed some buttons. She was really going to have to explore her friend’s house! They stood there watching him, waiting for a reaction. Renee checked his vitals again. His temperature was at 97.6 degrees and rising. Then why is he still unconscious? She studied his vitals, hoping for more inspiration.

A hand broke through the force field with lightning speed and grabbed her wrist. Renee jumped, a scream caught in her throat. Looking down, the young man’s eyes were open and looking at her with both curiosity and suspicion. Resisting the urge to break his hold, Renee stood her ground, returning his stare. The force field was gone. Finally he spoke. “Who are you?” he croaked, his voice hard.

Tabitha gasped and jumped. She hadn't been expecting that. Quickly stepping forward she said, "My name is Tabitha and this is Renee. Can you tell us who you are?" She reached out gently and placed a hand on the man's hand that grasped Renee's arm.

Renee remained silent and continued to return the man's stare. His voice had been hostile but his eyes were full of fear. She softened her gaze. "We rescued you," she said in the softest voice she could muster. Now was not the time to have an edge. The grip on her wrist remained as he sat upright. Ignoring Tabitha's question, he looked around the room. "Where am I?" His voice was still gruff with a hint of fear. Renee decided to stay quiet and let Tabitha do the talking. She wasn't very tactful and this situation required it.

Tabitha kept her hand on top of the man's her thumb massaging his skin. "This is my place. I am setting up a facility that rivals teen titan's tower. You are in the basement inside the medical bay. Are you okay? Are you in pain or need anything?" She wondered how to approach someone who was obviously not sure he liked being here. Had she said too much? Not enough? She glanced at Renee.

Tabitha’s soothing voice and words softened his glare. He released his grip on Renee’s arm and took a deep breath. “I could use some water,” he asked hesitantly. He kept staring at Renee, as if gazing into her soul. His face wrinkled with confusion as Renee stared back at him, unfazed. He then turned and gazed into Tabitha’s eyes. Suddenly, Tabitha’s eyes glazed over, her face blank. Looking sharply at her friend, Renee realized what was going on. “Stop it,” she demanded softly, glowering at the strange visitor. He continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “Stop it, now!” To back up her command, she reached out and touched his arm. He jumped back, falling off the bed. Renee reached for Tabitha.

Tabitha slumped against her friend, then slowly seemed to get a hold of herself. Standing slowly, she reached a hand to her head with a gasp. "Man that hurt. What did you do?" She turned and reached for the cabinet to pull out a hypospray. Placing it against her neck, she pushed the button. The universal medicine seeped into her, slowly numbing the pain in her head. Her memories were fuzzy though, like a bruised apple.

"What did you do?" Renee asked, glaring at their guest. She kept a wary eye on Tabitha but the girl seemed to have recovered.

His expression was strangely more relaxed now as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “I’m sorry for scaring you,” he apologized in a shaky voice. “I had to be sure you weren’t….one of them.” He looked down. “The only way I sense trust is to look into one’s eyes and read their minds. It can be a little disconcerting.” He looked up, gazing curiously at Renee. “For some reason, I couldn’t read you, so I read your friend,” he said, glancing timidly at Tabitha.

Not sure whether to believe him or not, Renee didn’t take her eyes off of him. “Then you could have asked us instead of invading our thoughts,” she told him darkly. “Now that you can trust us, you wanta tell us who you are?”

Tabitha nodded to that. "I wouldn't mind knowing who you are and why you can change from human to mist." The man sighed and asked, "I don't suppose we could do that over a meal. I'm really hungry. I'm sorry, I know you want answers." Tabitha shrugged and waved towards the door, this way.

The moon shown through the two-story windows in Tabitha’s luxurious dining room as the three of them sat down to a late supper. Renee hadn’t realized that so much time had passed since the plane ride. Their guest was eating like he hadn’t seen food in weeks. Renee sat across from him, eyeing him suspiciously. He still hadn’t said who he was, what he was, or who “they” were. Finally after twenty minutes of watching him eat and hearing Tabitha try small talk with him, she decided she had had enough. “Ok, now that you’ve had food, do you mind answering our questions?” she asked. “After all, it’s only fair we know all about you,” she added sarcastically, waving her hand casually in the air.

The man hesitantly replied, "My friend who lives in Seattle is always wanting my help in funding for his scientific projects. I couldn't help him out the last few months. Guess he got angry. Didn't know he had it in him. I wasn't the first. I see that now. You wouldn't believe what he had just finished when I arrived. When I saw it, I couldn't believe it. He had a mythology book open. I saw pictures. You wouldn't believe me. He kept mumbling I had to help. That he wouldn't be outdone. I didn't know what to think. Then he stunned me. Literally. It was horrible."

Tabitha blinked at the mumbled and incohesive ramblings. She turned and looked at Renne, her confusion evident. Jumping up, she ran out of the room. Returning to her stunned companions pushing a cart. On the cart was a large flat screen. She set it up so they could all see. Then she picked up a small device and looked at him. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to place this on the side of your head. It will sting at first, but the sting will ease. It will allow us to see your memories." While he scrambled for a response to that, she promptly put it on the side of his head. He gasped and shuddered. The screen turned blue.

Stepping back, Tabitha asked, "Who did this to you?"

Immediately, his thoughts turned toward the event. They saw the most extreme clips of his memories. Not of the mad scientist, but of his creations. The first was the very same electronic girl from the bank. Gasping, Tabitha watch the girl seem to wake up and in a zombie-like fashion leave the room. The second was of another monster. More terrifying and almost complete. The book of myths lay open on a table nearby. As he was being stunned, his gaze fell across the page. There was the source of terror for all involved. He started crying as the memories went black. She stood there in shock, unable at first to process what she had seen. There was a monster active in Seattle? There was another monster this man's friend was competing with? It made no sense.

The only sound in the room was the man’s sobbing. Renee could hardly breathe, her mind was turning numb from fear. Two monsters running around Seattle was a terrifying thought. Ok, ok....I need to think, she thought. Repeating the images in her mind over and over, she started to try to piece together the puzzle. Two mad scientists, two mythical monsters, a competition perhaps?

No, it wasn’t that trivial. If the second monster was in the myth book, then it was a mythical creature from long ago. This scientist really was mad. He was trying to compete with magic itself!

Renee blinked. The explosions. The ones she thought she had caused almost two days ago – they weren’t her fault. She should have realized it sooner! They had been too far away for her powers to reach but she had just assumed because of her lapse of control.

She bolted up, knocking her chair to the floor, and sprinted toward the library nearby. She had to get to a computer, find out what exactly had exploded. They had been so intent on relaxing that they hadn’t been paying attention to the news very closely. She heard footballs behind her and Tabitha’s voice. “Those explosions! They happened in Seattle!” she yelled over her shoulder. She slid to a stop in front of a desktop and started typing furiously.

((If you want, you can refer back to the first post they appeared it. I hyperlinked them earlier without really having a story. Now we do ^_^))

Tabitha raced after Renee. Surprise and concern filling her. Well, not the surprise. That seemed to be a constant at the moment. However, events they had no knowledge of were definitely spiraling out of control. She ran into the library and stood alert in the middle. She glanced at Renee, then turned and looked at the books. She had a large collection. Plenty to do research if the day came to not use electronics. Would she have a copy of the book she had seen? Probably not readily available. There were still crates in the storage room needing to be cataloged and shelved. She turned and looked back at the door. Their guest stood there uncertain. She took his arm and led him back to the diningroom. "Come on, let's finish eating. I'm sure you would love nothing more right now than to take a nap afterwards."

So that was it. The explosions had originated in Seattle at a power plant and had caused secondary explosions in a Bellevue plant. The cause was unclear from the different news reports Renee had been reading for the last hour, the officials believed it was an accident. There was just no explanation. Everything had just exploded. Hundreds of employees had been injured, dozens killed. Renee sat back in the leather chair, eyes gazing at nothing as she considered the facts. A mysterious explosion, two mythical monsters on the loose in the city with who knows how many minions – what did it mean? Renee looked up when she heard the main door creak open off to the side. “How is our guest?”

Tabitha sighed and collapsed in a nearby chair. Raising her hands with the shake of her head, she said, "Asleep? After seeing his own memories, he went really quiet. I'm not sure he liked being forced to confront them." Leaning back, she stared up at the ceiling. "Renee, why would someone compete with something he can't be sure exists? Competition? Pre-Offensive? Pre-Defensive? Just wants to have his claim on fame? What's his motive in all this besides being badder than myth?" She wasn't just being a tired whiner. Using a person's motives against them when they tired of monologuing, which usually happened after being captured, was always a good strategy. That is as long as it didn't backfire. Not that she planned to be captured in the first place.

Renee sighed softly, letting her own fatigue show through. "I don't know. Does anyone ever understand insanity? Oh, and here's another thought for you to ponder - that last girl we faced? Was she another of his creations, or the competition's?" Renee shivered slightly, remembering the sadistic telepath they had faced at the bank on their first day in town. That was one encounter she didn't want to repeat.

We only have proof of the mad scientist. There has been no sign of the myth creature. And she seemed really unstable. It is a guess, but maybe the scientist's? She stood and jumped on a computer and began researching. The events all happened around a large area, but if your circled them, in the middle was a warehouse and shipping yard. That might provide a clue to the whereabouts. Then she began going through sources trying to find clues on the myth creature. While doing that, she commented, "Maybe in a few minutes we can head out in the jet while he is asleep and check a warehouse out. Not sure it is the place, but it gives us a place to start."

Renee nodded, stifling a yawn. Now was not the time to be tired. “Agreed.” She printed the summary of data she had compiled while Tabitha finished. “I’ll bring this along. Maybe we can-“The door opened with an eerie creak.

Bernie, the foreman in charge of the training course construction, stepped inside the dim library. “I’m sorry to bother you Ma’am but we just finished the final touches to your course. Thought you would like to know.” He glanced at Renee, who just stared at the computer.

Tabitha glanced up and nodded, "Sounds good." Turning back to Renee, she said, "I'll be back in half an hour or so." Standing, she left her research open and headed for the door. "You worked in a timely manner. Let's go check out your work." He had so far been reliable and for that, she was grateful. She might use him in the future if he work panned out. Not just for consistency but also to narrow down how many people knew exactly what this place was. She had meant this home to be her personal fortress in case the world went to pot. However, it did seem they were following the teen titans by becoming heroes.

Renee hesitated for only a moment. She jumped up after them, remembering at the door that she had forgotten about her computer. Looking to make sure no one was around, she concentrated on the computer and shut it down. “Hey, wait up! I’ll come too!” she shouted, catching up to them. She trusted Bernie not to reveal who her parents were but she wanted to be sure there were no slip-ups.

Smiling at Renee as she caught up to them, they made their way outside towards the training grounds. Reaching the outer edge, he showed her the control tower. From there you could control difference aspects of the course or set up a program to run by senser or timer. He started pointing out the elements of the obstacle course as well as how it could be made harder or easier. There was also the "survival" zone that existed of hologram panels set up creating a boxed barrier. Inside, any number of simulations could be created. She nodded her head in approval. This would help challenge her abilities so that she could improve.

Renee heard Bernie explain the course but she wasn’t really listening. She didn’t think her father’s old friend would rat her to him, but it was still incredibly awkward. Ever since she had turned 18 the police had left her alone. Unfortunately, her father’s personal force didn’t seem to care that she was an adult.

Renee was jolted from her thoughts by a thunderous crash. She turned just in time to see Tabitha’s special jet soar into the air, heading toward them. The trio hit the ground as it roared low over them, destroying three obstacles and turning them into rubble. Rising slowing to her knees, she realized it could only be one person: their unstable dinner guest. "Thank goodness that thing doesn't have weapons," she muttered, brushing the dirt off of her sleeves.

Jumping back, Tabitha's mouth dropped open as she stared at their plane running away. Plane's were supposed to runaway. Only pets did that. She hadn't named the darn thing so it was a pet, therefore not allowed to runaway. Turning towards Renee, she suggested, "Can you hot rod that joy rider?" Stopping it first would be a great priority. Making a mental note to set up a backup "freeze" function for future vehicle creations.

Renee thought for a moment, then tried searching for the plane's electrical system. "No, it's too faint. I can't connect to the electronics," she replied, annoyed at herself. This is what she gets for not practicing her powers! "Do you have a tracer on the that thing?"

Nodding, she turned to run for the lodge. "Yeah!" she called over her shoulder. It was always a good thing to track one's stuff or to know who was on the property. The ground floor and upstairs might seem like a normal mountain retreat with normal rooms. Downstairs was another story. Racing through the wide corridors, she skidded to a stop in front of a particularly think and large door. It's safety measures were insane: handprint scan, retinal scan, voice identity check, gene check, bio-living check, and telepathic confirmation. Some things even a clone couldn't replicate and the feel of the mind was one of them.