Invitation

Everything was black, and it felt like his skin was burning, he couldn't breathe either, and he was floating in some kind of slimy liquid.

When I used Psychometry, I thought that I was going to get glimpses of crucial moments of his life or maybe a recent event, but I got the feeling that this was his oldest memory.

In the beginning, I thought that he was on the womb, and I was about to see his all life, but at that moment someone took him, and he finally left that pool, and I discovered that he was being bathed in blood. After this it there was a time lapse.

He was awakened in the morning, maybe it was the next day, or it was more time than that. A young girl brought him food that day.

I saw him in front of two guys, in a dimly lighted room, one of them was holding a sniper rifle, was in his twenties and had long hair but his eyes were unfocused, the other was a middle-aged man with an aquiline nose, this was the one that talked. He told him that his job was to go near the groups he found and kidnap people if he took girls it was way better.

He followed his orders, I was able to recognize the place where he slept, an old apartment complex in the south. Another time-lapse he took a woman on her thirties, she was visibly scared, a man tried to protect her, but he was shot by the sniper.

He just holds the woman and teleported a bunch of times until he got back, where he would give the woman to the middle-aged man. He never saw that woman again.

This was repeated two more times, but with the constant time lapses, it was difficult to know when it happened exactly. Besides the people in the house he never saw anyone else, and the things he had to do, were always the same.

One day the middle-aged man saw something, and they had to leave in a hurry. The idea was to kill someone and create conflict between two groups, this had nothing to do with him because he was told to do the usual and kidnap a girl, the assassination was the sniper guy's job.

He did the usual, went inside, looked around for a girl, he saw a dark-haired green-eyed young girl, so he stretched to take her with him… he was about to take her hand and go back when a whistle sounded at his side. His head hurt, and he stopped moving, the floor was moving towards him, and he felt all his body get impacted by it. He touched the side of his face and saw blood on his hand, and everything went black after that.

I came back to reality at that moment.

Since I got time distortion, I understood that even if it was like I have been going through the memories of someone for a while, in reality, it was just a couple of seconds.

Dr. Harting was looking at me, I'm not sure if he was pondering about how I killed that guy so fast or if he was thinking about what I just did.

I wasn't sure what to think from what I saw, I believe that there is a high chance that Dr. Harting has nothing to do with this, and this is some kind of plot to create a conflict between his group and us.

But I had no idea who was the one that planned this, they definitely were behind the disappearance of the people around too. And just like this there probably are more hunting groups.

'He escaped flying before the beasts reached him~.'

Besides the sniper guy, there was that other man, the one that gave the orders. He probably was another pawn, but if I'm not mistaken, he should have a scouting power and should have warned the sniper. At this moment I got worried about Isabella, Dana and Rose's body.

"We have to go back and move from the apartment."

I suddenly said.

"What?... Why?" Hope asked.

"The sniper already left but I'm worried about Isabella, Dana, and Rose. Outside I got the feeling that someone was spying us. And I think that Professor Harting felt it too."

"Yes, and it's not the first time he has been keeping an eye on my group for a while."

"And thanks to that he now is aware of mine."

Dr. Harting also noticed that, so he wasn't surprised about what I said. But he felt guilty about it.

"Let's go." I started to move back to the apartment, Dr. Harting was pondering about something and stood there while the Ian and the rest of his group looked at each other clearly uncomfortable.

While we were moving Dante kept all the beast away from our path, he also told me that there was nothing unusual around the apartment, but just like Dr. Harting has someone that could hide them, who says that this other group doesn't have someone like that?

"Wait, Spencer!"

I stopped and looked at Dr. Harting that had to run to catch up.

"I may have a solution to your problem."

I looked at him and remembered the system mission to accept, right now it was pretty evident that even if initially it wasn't his intention for us to join his group, he was going to offer that.

The reason was simple he felt guilty for giving away our existence and putting us in danger, and since he knew about Hayley's situation her presence in a large group would have been bad for them. But now she can control it, so there was no reason for them not to want us with them.

The system wouldn't have given me that mission if it wasn't important. Also, we didn't have much choice, another group have us in their eye already, and unlike Jamie, I don't think they are a bunch of people under control of an idiot with power.

We arrived home, and I was happy to see everyone safe and sound.

Dana wasn't there, I think she went to hide because of the strangers. When Isabella saw them, she became a little wary of them.

Rose came to my side. I Knew that Dr. Harting was trying to see everyone's power, but he gave Rose a weird look but said nothing.

"Isabella, we need to get ready to move away from here."

"Why? Did something happen?"

"Yes, a weird group of kidnappers saw us, and I think they can try to do something, so I prefer to move from this place in case they already know about it."

She went pale, she was already kidnaped once, so she probably recalled that event

"Don't worry we are going to be fine, this is just a preventive measure. We are going to leave tomorrow morning."

She seemed to calm down a little and went to get everything ready.

"G go to the workshop and prepare everything you need, Hayley and Hope get the remaining food and water ready, focus on the water and the food that doesn't spoil I can hunt if we want meat. Rose pack the random stuff that we might need."

I was about to tell Dante to go see Dana, but he wasn't here, so he probably was already taking care of her.

I turn around and saw the four guys I have been ignoring until now looking at me.

"Now let's make this fast I have things to do now…"

Dr. Harting looked at me with a guilty face.

"Would you consider joining us?"

That was more direct than I thought. I looked at him for a few second and pretended to be in deep thought.

"I don't know professor, I don't want to get in the middle of this, I don't know who they were or why they don't want me to work with you, but I got the feeling that there is more here than what you are telling me."

"There is more to it, but I don't know too much about it either.

Let's begin with how everything started, just like you. I saw the meteor shower, but I didn't notice the changes in the people until a couple of days later.

I was in a group that was at the police station, and it was Hayley's father the one that told us most of the things we know, of course by that time we all noticed some of the changes and Aaron explanation was the best we had, the human mind evolved, and some people became Espers.

At the time there was a second group in the clinic, and we shared a lot of info, and we still do, but the ways we wanted to handle the emergency was a little different, so both groups never merged.

There wasn't a conflict with them, but thing turned weird when about a week ago, people started to disappear."