"I need answers," said Cal. "One of the few people who's ever been able to give me answers is Professor Kelna.

Cal stood, grabbed his pack and looked at Ghost. "Could you show me the way out please, I need to visit an old friend."

Ghost smiled and gestured to a tunnel leading away from the central hub. "If we go this way it'll take you straight to the main transport system. Let's go."

It was as they were leaving the Community that Cal noticed the maintenance bot. It hung, spider-like on a wall as they exited the underground lair of the Ghost and his friends.

"Ghost," he whispered, pointing.

His companion held up the whining jamming device. "Don't worry, we have a little time. Those things don't tend to take much notice of us at the best of times." He paused and proffered a hand to Cal who shook it. "Good luck Cal, and don't forget to use your brain, it's a formidable weapon."

Ghost opened a door and ushered Cal through. "Turn right at the end and you'll find yourself near the transport hub near the entrance to the Falls. Your pod will be there waiting. We'll be following your progress." As the whine of the device faded, Ghost gave an enigmatic smile, and the door closed leaving Cal alone.

~~~

Cal hesitated with his hand raised. The door to Kelna's apartment was the same as the others in the corridor, although located in one corner. The only difference in appearance was an old fashioned door knocker. The hideous face of a gargoyle beamed grossly at Cal from the otherwise plain surface and he smiled, memories of many visits as a child crowding his mind. Kelna had always been a little different. Taking a deep breath he grasped the knocker rather than pushing the button of the intercom, and smacked it solidly against the door.

Nothing.

He waited a few minutes and tried the intercom. Again, nothing. Getting frustrated, he asked the apartment to leave Kelna a message and sank down to the floor, his back against the door.

Groaning in frustration, he clenched his fists and silently shouted Kelna, I need you. Where are you? in the depths of his mind.

The door behind him opened abruptly, and he tumbled backward in surprise, landing flat on his back and sprawling unceremoniously at the feet of his old mentor. Kelna's face was still grumpy, even upside down, and Cal scrambled to his feet.

"Inside, now," hissed Kelna, and ushered Cal inside. As Cal turned to face his old professor, the man grabbed him by the chin and looked deep into his eyes. "How long have you been able to project your thoughts like that? What else can you do?"

Cal pushed the man's hand away from his face and straightened up, smiling broadly. "Nice to see you too, Professor, it's been a while."

"Has it? Seems like only yesterday. Welcome to the perils of getting old, boy." Kelna walked away muttering and waving his hands, his hair standing out at odd angles from his head. He whirled around abruptly. "Are you going to answer me, Cal? You know I don't like an unanswered question."

"I've only recently learned to communicate without using direct Mind link, and in the last few days since Helena died I've been able to move things with my mind."

Kelna stopped pacing, his intense look of concentration tinged with sadness. "Helena has passed on?"

Cal nodded mutely, tears forming in his eyes and with two quick strides Kelna was there, enveloping him in a hug as Cal broke down. When Cal regained control of his raging emotions, Kelna sat him down on a chair, and it was then that Cal noticed the bag on the old man's bed.

"You're going on a trip, Professor?"

"Sharp as ever, lad," muttered Kelna. He added a final item to his bag, reached into his pocket and produced a device identical to the one Cal carried. The familiar whine reached Cal's ears as Kelna activated it and sat next to him at the small table. "We've not got much time. I was hoping to get away before anyone found me, but it appears events have moved far faster than I envisaged. I'd also hoped to get to you before you came to me." He placed a hand on Cal's shoulder. "You've come a long way lad, very few can do what you do, or have a mind like yours. I'm glad you're fulfilling your potential, but there are others who won't be. We need to get away from here."

"The Community?"

"No, we cannot compromise them, they're harmless but are mostly a bunch of conspiracists who love being 'apart' from the rest. But they wouldn't survive where I intend to take you."

"Outside?"

"Not quite. But there's more than meets the eye to the Cities, Towers, and Domes that we live in. Even in utopia there are secrets, Cal. Despite our hedonistic lifestyle, we are still little more than apes who can pick things up and use them as weapons, but many of us still have an innate curiosity. But sometimes curiosity can kill the cat, and today we're definitely feline."

Kelna walked to a corner of the room and pressed a switch. A section of the wall dissolved, and a corridor appeared behind it. He grabbed his bag and grinned at Cal madly. "How curious are you feeling, lad?"

Cal stood and grinned back. "Curious enough, Professor. Let's go."

As the two of them stepped into the tunnel there was a thud at the door to the apartment, and Kelna slapped a panel on the wall of the tunnel as the whine of the device decreased to silence.

"What—" started Cal but was silenced by a fierce look from the professor. The wall morphed back into place and Kelna jammed the device up against the panel. He pressed the button again, and sparks flew.

"That should hold them for a while," muttered Kelna.

"Hold who?" said Cal, fear washing across his skin in a sheen of goosebumps.

"Even utopia has cleaners, Cal. We're now off the network, and you, my young friend, are a bit of a loose cannon if all you've said about your mind powers is correct. We are now on the run. This is where it gets interesting."

"You have a curious definition of interesting, Professor."

"I do, don't I," said Kelna. "Sometimes, Cal all you can do is just go with the flow. There's a time for logic, but there's also just a time to..."

"... jump into the river feet first?"

"Precisely, dear boy. Glad you were listening to some of my lectures all those years ago. Right, let's go."

The two of them moved swiftly down the hidden corridor, Kelna leading the way down the narrow space. Pale light exuded from the walls and despite being hidden, the air seemed fresh, and the corridor clean.

Cal frowned "Professor, what exactly is behind us?"

"Best not to think on that too much, lad. Remember the old films where every time someone looks over their shoulder they trip over a tree root?"

"Yes, but I fail to see—"

Kelna stopped dead in the corridor and turned to fix Cal with a penetrating stare. "All you can do is trust your instincts lad, regardless of who you're with, or what you're doing. My instincts are telling me to get away, now. I would like you to come with me, but it's your choice. I have to keep going forward, that's the only way I know to go."

"Okay, Professor, I trust you."

Kelna nodded but as he turned to move again, there was a distant thud from behind them and the professor's face paled. "We're out of time. No more delays."

Picking up the pace, the two of them moved as quickly as they could in the confines of the corridor. A few seconds later, they burst into an open space. The bright light from above temporarily blinded Cal.

As his eyes adjusted, he realised they stood at the side of one of the many domes dotted around the city. But in the centre of this one was a small transit station.

"Come on, lad, we need to get to that transport."

Cal glanced over his shoulder. "I think we're too late, Professor."

Bots streamed out of the tunnel behind them, spidering swiftly over the surface of the dome, the walls, and the ground. Silently they came, a swarming tide of Mind controlled order. Within seconds they were surrounded, and Kelna swore at length as the metallic circle closed around them.

- Sorry, Professor, Cal, but I can't let you do this. The voice of the Mind echoed from the walls around them, and Cal looked over at his mentor who stood stock still next to him.

- I have prepared a mild sedative that will allow you to be transported back to your respective apartments safely. Once there, we will make sure you get proper treatment for your conditions.

"What conditions?" Cal said, surprising himself.

"Curiosity, boy," replied Kelna grimly. "The human race isn't meant to be curious anymore, we're meant to be sheep, not explorers."

"But what of all the lessons, the exploration of mathematics and science?"

"Harmless distraction. You were happy in your own little world weren't you?"

"Yes, but..."

"But now you know there's something else out there, something outside, something bigger than just the Cities. Why have a City when you can reach for the stars?"

A small bot rolled toward them on silent tracks, a needle held steady in one of its many armatures.

"So we get quietly dealt with?" asked Cal, his fists clenching helplessly.

"Looks like it lad. Unless we can get to that transport. But we appear to be out of options." Kelna turned to face Cal and took an involuntary step backward. Cal's face was suffused with rage, and his eyes were fixed on the bot with the needle. Cal rose from the floor and his hands lifted, fingers splayed. The bot also rose from the floor. He barely noticed Kelna gasp out a muttered "oh boy" and dive for the ground before the bot exploded in white-hot shards of metal.

Cal's mental fury slammed into the bots surrounding them. A roar of anguish and pain escaped from his mouth, loss and rage streaming forth in a mental percussion that ripped its way through bot after bot. Cal didn't know if he could end the torrent of destruction, but he didn't want to stop it. Kelna had covered his head with his hands and curled into a ball. The old man shouted in fear as the air filled with debris.

The last bot dropped from the roof of the dome in a splintered mass of twisted metal. Cal descended to the ground and staggered a little as his feet touched down.  He took a deep shuddering breath, the diminishing rush leaving him a little shaky. He placed a hand on Kelna's shoulder, and the old man lifted his head to take in the view of smouldering carnage around him.

"Shades, Cal, you certainly know how to throw a party."

"Professor, what am I becoming?"

Kelna hauled himself to his feet and hugged Cal again. "You are who you are, lad. Never be ashamed of that. You can merely do a few things others can't. You may need a little practice though."

Cal looked around. The highest concentration of damage had been around the tunnel entrance where they'd entered the dome. Piles of wrecked bots lay heaped around the doorway, but there was something else too. Cal moved back toward the corridor, Kelna's protestations about lack of time and needing to keep moving ignored as his eyes caught a flicker of light.

The walls around the entrance to the corridor were damaged, but instead of bits of wall being removed, or holes being blasted in its surface, an all too familiar pattern of green and black flickered in and out of reality. The power of his rage had revealed something that before had been hidden.

"It's not real," he gasped in sudden realization. "None of this is real at all." He strode over to Kelna who straightened himself up as Cal approached. "Are you real, Professor? Is any of this actually happening? What is going on?"

"I'm as real as you perceive me to be lad. What does your heart tell you? Do not underestimate the power of your mind." Kelna paused and looked over Cal's shoulder. "We have more company."

More bots streamed in through the damaged entrance to the corridor, and the Mind's voice once more spoke from the walls surrounding them.

-You need to see Dr Takei, Cal. Please allow me to help you. You are becoming dangerously delusional and need help to control yourself.

A bot rolled forward holding a needle.