The next day, Jefferson was surprised when Jen entered his office at Garfield.

"Jen, is everything okay?" Jefferson asked.

"Uh, I'm not sure. I was hoping you could check on something for me." Jen said.

"What is it?" Jefferson asked.

"Khalil. I haven't seen him anywhere at school today and no one here seems to know who he is." Jen said.

"Okay, I can see how that might be concerning, but what do you want me to do?" Jefferson asked.

"I was just wondering if you could check the school's database and find out what happened to him?" Jen asked and Jefferson nodded.

"One second." Jefferson said as he typed a few things into his computer.

"Okay yeah, this is strange, since this is saying that Khalil is not a student at Garfield." Jefferson said.

"How is that possible?" Jen asked.

"I do not know. My guess would be that it's another gift from this new world." Jefferson said.

"We need to find out where he is." Jen said.

"I'll call Gambi, see if he can track him down, since I do agree that we need to find out where he is." Jefferson said.

"Thanks dad." Jen said.

"You're welcome, but Jen, I'm not just doing this for you. I'm doing this because we need to know if Khalil simply lives in another city or if he's involved in something a lot more sinister." Jefferson said and Jen nodded as she left his office and allowed Jefferson to get back to work.

"What's going on Jeff?" Gambi asked when he answered his phone.

"Khalil is missing. There's no record of him having ever been a student here at Garfield and I can't find any records of him existing at all. Think you could do some digging?" Jefferson asked.

"Say no more." Gambi said as he sat down at his computer and began to search.

"Well Jeff, I found the answer to that." Gambi said.

"What do you mean?" Jefferson asked.

"What I mean is that according to this old news report I found, Khalil and his mother were both killed in a car accident when Khalil was six." Gambi said.

"Check Khalil's grave, make sure that's true and that the ASA didn't decide to create Painkiller in a child." Jefferson said.

"I'm on it." Gambi said as he hung up.

"Well?" Anissa asked her mom as she waited for her mom to finish running tests.

"The tests are running as quickly as they can." Lynn said, right as they finished.

"Well?" Anissa asked.

"Wait, this can't be right." Lynn said as she ran the tests again.

"What can't be right?" Anissa asked as Lynn got the same test results back again.

Anissa, according to this, you do not possess the metagene like your father and sister do." Lynn said.

"Wait what? How is that possible?" Anissa demanded.

"I don't know sweetheart, but for right now at least, you're human." Lynn said.

"No, this can't be happening." Anissa said.

"Anissa, calm down." Lynn said.

"What do you mean calm down? My powers are gone, or more accurately, it's like they never existed in this reality. I can't be Thunder or Blackbird without my powers." Anissa said.

"Anissa, we will figure out what is going on with you, but for now, focus on being you. Anissa Pierce, the future doctor and activist." Lynn said.

"That's easy for you to say. You don't know what it feels like to lose something that has always been a part of you." Anissa said.

"Anissa, I'm going to find a way to restore your powers and for all we know the tests might be wrong. Just because we didn't find anything doesn't mean it's not there." Lynn said.

"Yeah, whatever." Anissa said as she got out of the chair she'd been sitting in in her mother's lab.

"Anissa." Lynn said.

"I better get back to work, since it looks like the only way I can save lives now is as a doctor." Anissa said as she left the lab, disappointment clear on her face as she did.

"Okay Gambi, why did you need us to meet you here? Shouldn't you be prepping to infiltrate the ASA?" Anissa asked as she and the rest of her family looked at Gambi as they all stood in the Sanctum, though it was clear that Anissa was not thrilled to be in a place that only reminded her of what she couldn't do anymore.

"I found a lead on Khalil that proves that Jefferson's suspicions were correct." Gambi said.

"So, it was empty." Jefferson said.

"Yeah." Gambi said.

"What are you talking about?" Jen asked.

"We found out that the reason Khalil isn't a student at Garfield is because he apparently died in a car crash when he was a kid." Gambi said.

"Why do you say that?" Lynn asked.

"Because I checked earlier today and Khalil's grave is empty. He's alive." Gambi said.

"The ASA couldn't wait for him to become a teenager. They abducted him while he was still a kid." Jen said in disgust.

"This just makes it even more important that I infiltrate the ASA, since it's the only way we can find out where Khalil is and save him." Gambi said.

"When we find him, I think I know a way to snap him out of the programming Odell no doubt put in him." Jefferson said.

"How." Jen asked.

"J'onn. If he restores Khalil's memories, the jolt might be enough to wake him up." Jefferson said.

"But if that doesn't work, he could end up restoring Painkiller's memories instead." Gambi said.

"If there's even a chance we can get Khalil back, we have to take it. We owe him. The only reason he was in any of this mess in the old reality is because of his association with our family." Jen said.

"Jen, don't worry, we'll find a way to save him. Especially since he may be exactly what we need to bring down the ASA." Jefferson said.

"What do you mean?" Jen asked.

"Abducting a six year old child, a black child, might I add, is not exactly something that the ASA would want endorsed. If we can free Khalil from their control, he can provide testimony of the ASA's crimes, including the ones they've no doubt made him commit." Jefferson said.

"That's not a bad plan. Except the fact that it's just his word against the word of a government agent with lots of highly paid, highly trained lawyers. We need more evidence, something that Odell's lawyers can't get him out of." Lynn said.

"It's a place to start at least." Jefferson said and Gambi nodded.

"It may not be much and it's likely a long shot at best, but it's better to have someplace to start than to have nothing at all." Gambi said.

"What about my powers?" Anissa said.

"What about them?" Jefferson asked.

"In case you haven't noticed, the team is down one superpowered meta in the field. We need every asset we can get in this fight against not only the ASA, but Tobias too. I need my powers back." Anissa said.

"And we will find a way to get them back Anissa. But in the meantime, it might not hurt for you to take a step back, let Jen and I handle things in the field." Jefferson said.

"Dad, how can you say that?" Anissa asked.

"Because frankly Anissa, considering the ways you were using your powers as Blackbird, I think you need some time to decompress and find yourself again." Jefferson said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Anissa asked.

"What your father is saying Anissa is that I think you got a bit too carried away as Blackbird. Freeland needs heroes to protect it. Not vigilantes who resort to the same methods that the enemy uses." Lynn said.

"We were fighting a war." Anissa said.

"And you let the power go to your head. I think that you need some time away from the action to think about whether or not everything you did as Blackbird really was necessary." Jefferson said.

"I can't believe this." Anissa said as she walked out of the Sanctum, furious that her own parents were siding against her.

Sorry to those of you who think that I'm picking on Anissa, but honestly, I feel like in season 3 as Blackbird, she kind of lost her way and began to use her powers to show off instead of just protect. I thought that she could use a reality check. Don't worry, she will get her powers back eventually, though I'm not saying how. It's all a part of a plan.