The last two witnesses that Michael had gathered were people I didn't recognize. One of them was a girl with fluffy pink hair that reminded me of a tulip, or something like that. She had tanish skin, yellow eyes, pointed ears, and a long sleeve shirt that was open in the back. The second one was a boy with very pale skin, white hair that fluffled out around his head, light blue eyes, and bright pastel clothes. When I looked closer at him, I could see that the pockets of his white skirt, which was decorated with green alien heads, were both weighed down by something heavy. 

The girl with the pink hair was called to the chair first. Her name was April, and she was there, because she too was superhuman. This surprised me, because I thought I was the only one. I was eager to learn who she was and what she could do, and how she was going to help me. 

As it turned out, April was able to make plants grow whenever and wherever she wanted, and make large wings made of twisting and swirling vines. I wondered for a moment how she was able to move them, and fly with them, but then more important things started happening. April beat her wings roughly in the air, causing her to lift of the ground and fly upwards for a moment before she let herself fall back to the ground. April was almost immediately being drilled into by the man who tortured me and his lawyer, and they asked her questions about what she was capable of, and if she had ever hurt anyone, and stuff like that. 

April stated that she had never intentionally hurt anyone with her powers, but she did end up crushing her father to death with a bunch of vines after he hit her one too many times. Of course, this lead to the man and his lawyer claiming that she was dangerous, and that her and I both shouldn't be aloud to walk free. 

The boy who I didn't know went up to the seat after April, and was asked all the same questions. The boy's name turned out to be Ben, and he informed the room that he had superhuman speed, endurance, stamina, and resistance. Not only that, but when he reached into his pockets, and pulled whatever was weighing his pockets down out, which turned out to be leather sacks full of lead balls, and set them down, he began to float. He just kept getting higher, and would have gone all the way to the ceiling if Michael hadn't reached up and grabbed Ben's ankle at the last minute. 

Ben kept his legs pressed close to one another, and he used one hand to keep his skirt pressed down against the front of his legs while using his other hand to reach for Michael, who was using his free hand to try and give Ben the sacks of lead balls back. Ben slipped the sacks back into his pockets, and Michael let go of him as Ben slowly sank back down to the ground. 

When Ben was asked if he had ever used his powers to hurt someone before, his response was tha no, he had never used them to hurt someone, but he had used them to escape when someone was trying to hurt him. Naturally, this was taken to mean that Ben shouldn't be aloud on the streets, because that meant that he was able to get away with not being punished for things he did. 

After that, it was time for the man and I to give our statements. The man talked about how people like me shouldn't be aloud to run free, because we killed people, and used our powers to run away from the consequences. He said that we needed to be taken off the streets, and kept in containment, where people would learn as much about us as they could, so that they could eventually let us free when they had a way to either control, or stop us if they thought they needed to. This was a terrifying future to imagine. 

When it wa my turn to speak, the man sat down, and all eyes turned to me as I stood up, moving so that I was standing in front of the little table where the witnesses sat. I only had a basic idea of what I was going to say, and was trying to figure out as much as possible during the meeting, but I didn't get very many details worked out. This meant that I kind of just had to start talking and go wherever my thoughts took me. 

"We've all sat here and listened to people talk about how dangerous I, and people like me, can be," I began. "But no one has really talked about what happened to me during these past few weeks. Like Steven said, we were all taken out of our home, and held in a cell. Everyone keeps talking about how I accidently killed eleven men when they came for us, but no one has talked about what they did that caused me to be forced to defend myself. 

"I did kill those men, and I really didn't mean too. I wanted get free of them, and get my friends and I out of there and as far away as possible, but I didn't want to kill anyone. However, the fact still remains that all I did was defend myself. One of the men, Smith, placed his hands on Jess before any of us touched either one of them, and grabbed her hard enough to leave a bruise on her arm. When we fought back because they were hurting us, a swat team came storming in, and they tried to wrestle us all to the ground. 

"All of my friends had their faces smashed against the floor, and I had four people holding onto me to keep me still, while two others came at me with tasers. This is when my powers really kicked in, and I broke free, and was trying to get the people off of my friends when both of the men tased me at once with very powerful tasers, that hurt like hell, and dropped me to my knees. That's what got them killed. My power surged, and I burnt all of them to nothing, and passed out. I did what I did in self defense.

"When I woke up, I was in a dungeon, and I was chained to the floor by my wrists with iron chains. My friends were all awake, and they said they were ok, but half of Steven's face was scraped up and bleeding, because they literally threw him into the cell. When we got out of that room, and tried to escape, Warren and Jess were taken away, while Steven and I were kept in another cell.

"When we were there, that man right there would do experiments on me, and treated me like some specimen that he thought would be fun to study. Just a couple days ago, he physically cut me open." At this point, I made the choice to pull off my shirt, and show everyone in the room that I had a giant 'Y' cut across my torso as if I was a dead body, and that the stitches were still in, and the wound hadn't even closed on it's own yet. "This is what he did to me! He dissected me, to study my insides, like I was some frog in a seventh grade science class! I woke up while he was stitching me up, and I felt everything he did from that point on. I could feel the string pulling through me, and the assistant that he had burning different parts of me to keep my blood out of his way. After that, I was just dropped back into the cell. 

"People want to sit here and talk about how I'm dangerous, and how people like me are dangerous, but no one wants to talk about how me and my friends were abducted, held captive, beaten, held at gunpoint, and how I was practically tortured. I have killed people, but it was out of self defense. I never would have hurt any of those people at all, if they didn't come into our house, beat us into submission, and abduct us like they did. 

"I have also beat lots of people up, but it was all people who needed to be stopped. I have never once attacked an innocent person, but I have stopped people, when I found them doing things like raping someone, or after I hear a gun go off and I find out that an innocent person was shot right through the head. 

"Based on what we heard from April and Ben, I would say that none of us are dangerous. April defended herself, just like I had, and Ben did what he had to do to get away from people who were trying to hurt him. People hurt those two, and people hurt me and my friends. But everyone is supposed to believe that we're the dangerous ones.

"Doing what I do, you quickly learn how evil people can be. I've seen a lot of people do a lot of messed up stuff, and it has changed the way I think of people, possibly for the better. It's made it easier for me to tell when someone is a bad person, and I can tell you for sure that that man, and the men helping him are bad people. Look at me, look at what they did to me, and try and tell me that I'm the one who needs to be controlled." I finished my speech, feeling pretty good about it, so I put my shirt back on, and hat was that. 

After my speech, everyone was given a break so the people at the long table to make their decision about whether or not I was going to go back into captivity. While that happened, I went outside the room, but stayed inside the building we were in, and Steven, Warren, Jess, and I were all grouped together in a long, and tight hug. Warren squeezed both Steven and I tightly, and I buried my face in Warren's chest, and I balled part of Jess's shirt in one of my fists. The hug hurt my stitches like hell, but I couldn't bring myself to care, because I wanted the hug more than I wanted my torso to stop hurting. 

When we did pull away from the hug, Steven turned his attention to Jess very quickly, and began looking her up and down, looking for any signs of injury, and turning to Warren to do the same thing. Steven was talking about how worried he was for Warren and Jess, gripping tightly onto the sleeve of Jess's shirt, when I caught sight of Mike and Bell a little ways away. I walked over to them, and was immediately pulled into yet another tight hug. 

"Gill." Mike said into my neck, continuing to hold me against him even after Bell had let go of me. I didn't say anything, but I wound my arms tighter around Mike's middle when I felt tears wet my neck and my shoulder. I figured Mike and Bell we upset about what they found out, and I knew that they would be. 

"I'm sorry you guys are here." I said eventually, still holding onto Mike, but looking at Bell. 

"It's not your fault. We're glad to know that you're ok." Bell told me.

"But you guys shouldn't have to deal with this. This shouldn't be your problem. If it wasn't for me, they would have left you guys alone. I never should have stopped hiding." I said, feeling as though everything that had happened to all of my friends was my fault. I should have stayed hidden like Steven wanted me to.

"Don't say that." I heard a voice from behind me say, causing me to let go of Mike just enough for us both to turn and look at who spoke, only to find April standing there, watching Mike, Bell and I. April was slanting to the side, putting all of her weight on one foot, and crossing her arms over her chest. 

"Why not?" I asked, possibly getting a little defensive. When Steven, Warren, and Jess noticed that April had come up to Mike, Bell, and I, they walked over, keeping their distance so April didn't feel threatened, but being prepared to act if that had to. 

I let go of Mike, but kept holding onto his hand as he clung to my arm. I turned to face April giving her my attention I wanted to know what April could have possibly had to say about why me coming out as superhuman was a good idea. 

"Because the rest of us needed it." April told me.