"Hey, Cassie?" Brie was kneeling next to her friend and poking at her shoulder. Cassie continued to look up at the approaching helicopter. "Do you think that maybe we should move?"

Cassie gasped and nodded, jumping up off of the grass as Brie did so. They tugged on their friends' arms until all five of them were back to standing. Then the group all jogged over to the building that they had come from.

None of them wanted to actually go back inside, so all of the girls ended up pressing their backs up against the outside wall of the project's building. There they stayed as the helicopter glided closer and finally arrived above the field area. The blades continued to whirl and toss up bits of dried grass from the ground after it had landed.

The kids all waited by the building, darkness cloaking them enough that they hoped to go go unseen until they wanted to be seen.

"You know, Em is going to be mad that she wasn't out here," Cassie whispered to Skye. The older girl snorted, before placing a hand over her mouth as though she were just remembering to be quiet.

Skye told Cassie, "Yeah, maybe, but it would have been a level twenty bad idea to tell her about the sneak-out. She would have told on us the minute we told her. Breaking rules is very much not her forte."

"Do you think we should go get her now?" Cassie wasn't speaking so quietly now, which caused all of the others to spin and 'shhhhh' her.

"Well, I'm not going back now! Look, people are getting out right now," Skye argued and crossed her arms. Cassie shrugged. She wasn't going inside now either.

Brie, on the other hand, edged around from where she was leaning against the wall. "Cassie, I'll go wake Em. I'll go really quickly so that we're out here to meet your brother." Cassie nodded as Brie moved past her towards the door.

Cassie had a feeling that the other girl didn't want to be caught when the rest of them inevitably ended up being found out. That was fine with her. Brie had no reason to be outside, really. She had just gone with because Cassie wanted her to.

Skye was outside because of curiosity and wanting to cheer Cassie up in the beginning. Rose was there because of Skye, and perhaps a bit for Cassie. There was no doubt in that.

Eve just went with the others. Not that Eve was a passive sort of person, but Cassie supposed that the other option for her friend would have been to go to bed.

The remaining four girls all drew in sharp breaths when the door to the building opened, letting a couple feet of light out of it as it let Brie inside. Someone on the helicopter was sure to have seen that. It didn't matter, though, because they were about to reveal themselves anyway.

Cassie studied the figures she could see. All of the people getting out of the helicopter looked like little more than silhouettes so were hard to identify. Four taller people got out of the machine, almost impossible to see because of their pitch-black clothing. Those were the team sent in, Cassie supposed. Then a blur of movement as a few smaller silhouettes were passed from a person in the helicopter to those out of it. Then the person still in the helicopter stepped out. The driver.

The girls, still pressed against the building, waited for another person to get out of the vehicle. Cassie was sure she would have noticed if a twelve-year-old had gotten out with the rest of them. She gave up after squinting for a moment, and grabbed onto Eve's forearm and Skye's wrist, trying to pull them along with her as she walked. Cassie had decided that if she couldn't see anything, she would just move in closer.

Skye reached back and took hold of Rose's hand as they all moved towards the helicopter. Cassie was moving more quickly than the others (even Skye) and ended up just letting go of her friends so she could run ahead.

The girl ended up running straight into the middle of the recon team, who were deep in conversation.

"We need to go back soon, you know. There are likely more children in there in some state or another and if we wait too long, they'll move base. So I think-" The girl speaking broke off as Cassie tumbled into the middle of their circle. "Cassie?"

The brunette stayed where she was, having tripped and half-rolled across the grass as she ran. Cassie just stared up at the people around her, Jazz looking back in a mix of annoyance and slight confusion. "I think we can finish this once we're all inside," Jazz finished, readjusting the bundle that she had tightly in her arms.

"Where's Joshua?" Cassie finally asked, looking up at Jazz intently. She wouldn't so much as glance at any of the others, who knew nothing about her except for that she had disobeyed and snuck out.

A man, about twenty, stepped forward from where he was staring next to Jazz in the circle. Jazz shot him a slightly irritated glare, but nodded when he raised his eyebrows in question. "He's going to need some sleep, Cassie. It's late and we're all tired."

"But where's. My. Brother?" Cassie crossed her arms and huffed angrily before uncrossing them when the man knelt on one knee and shifted the bundle he had in his arms so that it was facing Cassie. "Joshua?"

The boy resting in the older man's arms blinked open him eyes and yawned, before frowning and grabbing something from his ears. "You had headphones on so you wouldn't wake from noise in the helicopter," the man told Joshua. Joshua shrugged, choosing instead to move from where he had been sleeping and almost fell to the ground.

The boy righted himself and faced Cassie. Joshua grinned. "Hey, Cass. Did you miss me?"

Cassie beamed at her brother, who pretended to choke to death when she hugged him as tightly as she could. Joshua then looked around himself, furrowing his brow. "So, um, what the heck just happened?"

Skye, Rose, and Eve chose this moment to come walking into the circle. Jazz sighed when she saw them, and answered Joshua's question to Cassie for her. "I think we should go inside."

That they did, and ran into two others in the garage as they did so. Em and Brie joined the group, and Cassie tried to introduce Joshua to everyone and everyone to Joshua as they walked. It didn't work, but by the time they all made it up the elevator to one of the office rooms, they were a quite loud, very awake bunch. Midnight meant nothing when there were answers to be had.

There were over a dozen people in the office room to begin with, including the two small children that had been held in the arms of Jazz and one of the other girls. After introducing Joshua to each of them--Skye, Rose, and Eve--the older girls were told to leave. The same with both Em and Brie. After this, the room was significantly more empty. Then Miss Benn came in, and the room was still more empty than before.

"Joshua Gregor. You caused us quite the hassle," Miss Benn said as she shook Joshua's hand.

Joshua smirked. "Hey, I mean, sorry? I didn't know that the crazy scientists would come searching for me."

Miss Benn broke off from their conversation for a moment, turning to Jazz and the other girl holding onto a now-awake child. Both were around ten or eleven, and looking very alarmed. "Bring Emily to the children you have, and try to explain what's going on. Charles, go with them and try to find the kids' files. See if they have families or are going to stay with us."

"Come on, Charlie," Jazz said to the man who had been carrying Joshua. They left the room with the two active elementary-school kids in their arms.

"And Stephannie?" Miss Benn queried.

The fourth member of the recon team looked up from where she was waiting to be dismissed.

"You can go on to bed."

The girl, who was about three years older than Jazz, smiled and nodded before leaving the room. Cassie laughed as quietly as she could when she heard Stephannie's thoughts. The woman had no intentions of going to bed, and was instead headed to where Jazz and Liz (the other girl from the team) had taken the younger children to.

Now attention was back on Joshua and Cassie, who were sitting next to one another in the chairs around the table in the middle of the room.

"How much has Cassandra told you about the facilities here? Do you know about the project entirely?" Miss Benn asked Joshua.

"I know as much as she does, I think." Joshua glanced over to Cassie, who nodded. She had told him everything that she had been told about the Specialties Project.

Miss Benn nodded. "Is there anything else that you would like to know?"

"I'm staying," Joshua said. Cassie looked over to him in surprise and Miss Benn rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"That's not a very good question," Miss Benn told the boy. Joshua laughed.

"I don't have any actual questions. If you're so desperate for one, how about this: What's your first name?" Joshua asked. Miss Benn blew out a breath, moving her bangs from where they rested on her forehead.

She sighed, "You're going to be like Skye, aren't you?"

Cassie started laughing and only quieted when Miss Benn motioned lightly for her to do so.

"One, it's Margarite. Two, if you have no questions, then go to bed. Cassandra, the floor above your own has the boys dormitory rooms on it. The door directly above your own is the psychic's room for the male students. There are no others at the moment. You made your way up so I figure you can make it back." Miss Benn gestured for the twins to leave, and Cassie did so, leading her brother from the office.

They walked through the hallways, and were joined by a group of five others after the first turn. Cassie smiled as Skye grinned at Joshua and mouthed 'I like him' to his sister.

"I heard that Miss Benn is convinced that you are mini me, and I have decided that means I get to be your sarcasm mentor," Skye told Joshua, who furrowed his brow.

"What? How?"

"I was listening at the door," Skye told him, shrugging.

They all walked to the elevator, and then barely managed to squeeze in at the same time. But none of them were willing to split up the group as they had done on the way down from the surface, so they dealt with the close quarters.

"I'm going to guess that none of you are up to going up to the grass again, before they change the password for the elevator again?" Skye asked, and Cassie wasn't one hundred percent sure whether or not she was joking. To be safe, she shook her head fervently.

"Skye, it's almost one, and you're lucky they haven't said anything about us going up the first time. I'm going to bed," Cassie told her friend, drawing agreement from her friends.

They all split up on the stairs, as most of them headed for the girls dorms and Cassie led Joshua up to the boys'. Cassie kept glancing at Joshua as they walked, but he just kept his gaze on the ground.

She finally asked, "Hey, Josh... You alright? If you still think it's bad to be here, Skye could probably sneak you out. But I don't know. I think it's safer here, but if you--"

Joshua cut her off. "No. I want to stay. You were right. It's not safe. Not now."

"What happened?"

Joshua shook his head. "I was asleep most of the time, but I heard someone screaming. I think it was the little boy, the one that they brought back. I don't know... But they're bad. It's worse because they think that what they're doing is good. They think they're right."

"So you're staying for safety?" Cassie asked, pausing for a second to raise her eyebrows at her brother.

"No." Joshua stopped as well, shaking his head. "I'm staying to train. I'm staying because if I stay then I can learn how to use my specialty. And then, when I'm older, I'll be able to help. I could go out with a team and help rescue more kids. Maybe bring down those people for good."

Cassie nodded. She continued climbing the stairs and after a second Joshua joined her. "I don't know why they think what they're doing isn't evil."

"I do. They want to take the powers away so that no one has the ability to do... anything. Anything except for what we can do outside of the powers. They think it's better that way, that the specialties aren't... special. They're dangerous. We're dangerous. That's what they think."

"They're wrong," Cassie said, and smiled at her brother. "They're the ones that are dangerous." I don't know how someone could see this as anything but special.