A New and Present Danger...

I arrived at Headquarters a few minutes before midnight to find the buiding almost completely empty. I walked to the back to the central command area to find Dispatch sitting in front of a wall filled with screens. This wasn't my first time in the command area, but I never realized just how much of the city was covered by these cameras.

I stood for a moment and watched as several scenes changed, revealing more and more of the city. Glancing over, I saw Dispatch hit several buttons on the console, then turn to me.

"You saw what happened to MT?" I could tell by his tone that this wasn't meant as a question.

I nodded. "Yeah. Does this have something to do with what happened to Raz?"

"Unfortunately, yes." He stood and walked over to a huge cabinet that I hadn't noticed before. He punched a combination into to the built-in lock and took a small figure from inside. He walked back over to me and held out his hand. As I picked it up, I realized it was a small totem carved to look exactly like MT.

"We're up against something we've never encountered before. That figure is being used as a conductor. As near as I can tell, it can drain the powers from anyone. In MT's case, it drained his above-average strength. In Raz's case, it took the static electricity she generates to power her marbles."

I looked it over carefully. "So who's behind this? And," I looked at him closely as I handed him back the totem, "What does this have to do with Christopher?"

He squeezed it tightly before walking over to place it carefully in the cabinet. "As much as you hate it, Christopher is our only hope of stopping this from happening."

"Evidently, you don't know Christopher very well. He wants to rule the world, not save it."

He nodded slowly. "I know. But I think I may have convinced him to help us." I'm a skeptic at the best of times, so him having something that even might to make Christopher help us in the slightest has me curious. "And what might that be?"

He sighed, wiping his hand over his face before reaching into his pocket. In his hand, he held another statue, one that was extremely familiar to me. That's because it was me. I remembered seeing it the night of Leroy's hearing. I looked up quickly. "What does this mean?"

"There is one of these", he nodded towards the figure, "for each member of the Urban 30." Chills broke out all over my body. If all of our powers were wiped out, this town would go to hell in a handbasket real quick. Dispatch placed the totem of me back in his pocket. "The person behind this? He's a little known but very powerful guy by the name of Seth. He's carried a grudge against the U-30 for years, but up until now, hadn't found a way to get his revenge."

"I'm going to be calling everyone in for a major meeting. From now on, no one, and I mean no one, goes out alone. I'm going to pair you with one of the new guys, a guy named Midnight, and Tellico." I nodded. "Since I know Leroy is still holding a grudge, let him know that I'm teaming him up with Enigma."

I smiled. "You are a glutton for punishment aren't you?"

He shook his head before taking a deep breath. "Yeah. It seems that way doesn't it? But if those two could ever learn to work together...."

I nooded. "I know what you mean."

"Anyway, I'll be calling the meeting early tommorow morning." He glanced down at the console, then up at one of the screens. "Don't worry about showing up,"he said before starting to push buttons. "Why?" I frowned, trying to see what he was doing.

"Because according to the report I just recieved, your friend Ilektros just got arrested."

"He WHAT!" My cell started to vibrate like crazy on my hip. I flipped it open to see my home number.

"How in the hell am I going to get him out?"

"Don't worry about it. By the time you get there, I'll have completed a manual override of their system. It's not very good to start with. All you'll have to do is get him out of there before he gets pissed off and blows something up."

I nodded and walked quickly out the door. I figured I'd better shoot Leroy a message to meet me later so I that I could break the news to him.