Suck in the Moment Ch. 02

It looks like this was the best liked of the three stories, so it gets a chapter 2 first. If chapter 2 is well-liked I will work on a final chapter to be submitted in the next few weeks.

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I opened the door to the girl's hall when I noticed two men in suits knocking on Molly's door. Molly opened the door, and I could see the men show her something in their wallets.

"Molly McGuiness? We need you to come with us." The older of the two men said.

I slunk back and slowly closed the door.

I looked around. There were no security cameras in the hallway of the dorms. I could hear guys throwing a football on the other side of the door to the men's hall, but I couldn't see them and they couldn't see me.

I reached for that switch in my head. The one that froze time. The one that I had promised myself not to touch. I touched it, and the world went quiet. The air became thick and sterile; the sudden loss of the combined smell of 100 teenagers living in close quarters was jarring.

I pushed the door open, walking through. I approached Molly and the two men. Their wallets were still in their hands, and I lifted the flap to look. The older, taller Man's ID listed him as special agent Anthony Ellison of the FBI. The younger, shorter man's wallet showed he was special agent Nicholas Margolis of the FBI.

I rummaged through their pockets, finding a second wallet and a smartphone on each man. They each carried a gun and handcuffs under their suit jackets.

I opened Anthony Ellison's wallet first. There was a Virginia driver's license with an old picture of the frozen man. I put his belongings back, and checked Special agent Margolis's California Driver's license. He was younger than Agent Ellison, and shorter. Both men's personal IDs matched their professional credentials. I believed that they were who they said they were.

That gave me pause, though. As far as I knew, I hadn't committed a crime, so why were the FBI here? I thought about the security camera angles that hadn't been released to the public. I guessed that the cameras would have seen Molly well enough to identify her. The FBI must be here to interview Molly, since she had been chasing me, and I disappeared. Anyone watching a video of Molly's actions that morning would guess that she had seen and knew more than she had told anybody.

I thought about giving myself up, promising to cooperate with whatever they wanted as long as they left Molly alone. Then I started thinking about what they could possibly want from me. Nothing good, I was sure. The only two possibilities were that they wanted to stop me, or use me... Unless maybe there were more people out there with powers.

I decided to let this play out, to follow along, let Molly deal with them while I tried to eavesdrop and gather as much information as I could. I needed to let Molly know not to worry, that I would help her.

I pushed my way past Molly, who was frozen with an expression of worry and concern on her face. She had quickly thrown on flannel pajamas, and I could tell that she wore no bra. Her feet were bare, and she would have to go back in her room for shoes and a jacket.

Inside her dorm room, I found my shoes and socks, and my sweatshirt. I finished getting dressed, and looked around for paper and a pen. I found them on Candace's desk. I wrote Molly a short note in big letters.

'I'm with you. Don't worry. -T'

I wrapped the letter up in Molly's hand, and closed her fingers over the paper. She would find it when time restarted.

I briefly considered moving Molly away, carrying her away, and ending the interview before it started. The FBI had her name, though. They knew where she lived. Molly's life was about to be turned upside down because of me. There was no way around this, but through. I needed to know how much they knew. I needed to put Molly's life back in order, and find out what they wanted with her.

My best guess was that they were using her to get to me. My face must have been hidden on the security cameras, but Molly had been recognizable. She watched me disappear, and then she ran after me. They assumed that she knew what happened with the bus crash and the miracle, and that she was going to give them answers. I would make sure that Molly was away before she was forced to tell them anything.

I slunk down to the end of the hall and looked out a window. There was a big black SUV, a Chevy Suburban, parked at the entrance to the dorm with the motor running. I restarted time and slipped into the men's hallway, where the guys were still throwing the football and talking. I listened as Molly was led out the door, and then ran to the window.

I froze time again after the doors were opened, and as Molly first climbed inside the black SUV. I ran outside and slipped past Molly, frozen as she put her weight on the seat, and I climbed into the back end of the SUV.

There was a box of rubber gloves in the trunk, which I reached into, and took two out, covering my hands so that I wouldn't leave any fingerprints. I lay down on a pile of gear and clothing, pulling an FBI windbreaker over myself, and then I let time start up again.

It got colder in the back of the car as the other rear door opened, and I could feel the weight in the SUV shifting as Molly sat in the middle seat, and the agents got in on either side of her. The doors shut, and the driver pulled away from the dorms going fast.

"Can I at least ask what this is about?" Molly asked aloud. There was no response from the two agents on either side of her.

The car drove in silence for about 10 minutes, and Molly, knowing that she would get nothing until they arrived at their destination, remained silent. There were dim yellow lights outside, and I could tell that we were in a parking garage. The doors opened, and I could feel the stale air of the parking garage fill the back seat.

I once again reached for that switch inside my head, and flipped it. The world around me seized up, and I was once again alone with the statues.

Something happened that I had never felt before... well, maybe I had felt it, but not noticed. I was lying on a pile of gear, and under the jackets. I could feel them, or more accurately, it felt like there was a thin invisible thread connecting me to them. I could tell that they had been 'activated,' or maybe just brought through with me. I could feel the cloth, leather and plastic around me, warm and pliable, against the hard and unmoving frozen carpet.

A small bubble of warm and fragrant air was trapped in front of my face. I could smell the sweat of the man who had been wearing it. I could feel around me, and even though I couldn't identify the objects that were touching me, I could tell what items were frozen in time. They felt different from the items which, like my hamster, Ted, had been brought through 'awake' with me.

I knew that if I climbed out of the car and left them, that they would disappear like Ted had once time restarted. They would exist for an eternity within that frozen moment, until their molecules blinked out from existence.

Still in contact with the items, I restarted time, and felt the items move back through with me. The agents were moving out of the car again, and Molly was with them, moving across the seat. I thought carefully about the things I was touching, and I could still feel them, in a way. I pushed the invisible threads that connected them to me away from my mind as I reached for the switch again.

The world froze; the windbreaker jacket above me was once again stiff and frozen. There was no trapped air bubble of warm scent. I pushed the garment off my head, and arose, feeling again for the gear in the back of the SUV.

My clothes were the only items touching me that weren't frozen with the rest of the world. I rose from the back end, pulling the stiff windbreaker with me as I climbed into the back seat and past Molly, who was accepting the hand of agent Margolis as he helped her out of the car.

I looked around. The parking garage was small, only about two dozen parking spaces, of which roughly a third were empty. There were stairs and an elevator on one wall. The only other exit was the garage door through which the SUV had entered. There was a badge reader next to the door to the stairwell.

I surveyed my frozen surroundings. Apart from Molly and the two agents, only the driver was in the garage with us. He had gotten out, and was walking ahead to the elevator. He was a handsome young man, also wearing a suit. I pulled out his wallet and checked his name. Special agent Jackson Willis of the FBI. They had sent an entire team to collect Molly.

I looked in Agent Willis's hand and saw his wallet with the badge. He was headed for the elevator. I assumed that there was a card in his badge wallet that unlocked doors in the building. He would be using his badge, and notice if I stole it. I turned to agent Ellison. He was the oldest, and I assumed therefore that he would be senior, and have better access. I fished in his pocket and pulled out his badge. I found a card inside that looked like it would unlock doors.

I put his wallet back, and looked around for cameras. There were six, and they had been wisely placed to offer no blind spots. I checked several cars and SUVs and found them locked, before I found an SUV that I could open, although with difficulty. I put the FBI windbreaker on, and climbed inside, closing the door.

I thought briefly that I had broken my promise to myself more in the last hour than I had in the previous five years since I made it. I worried whether I was doing the right thing, using my power. I had made a mistake, and couldn't keep my secret without taking the risk of using my power. I also knew that I was using it to help Molly. She trusted me, and I had trusted her with my secret. I wasn't about to leave her to the FBI, and whatever they wanted from her.

I restarted time from the driver's seat of the SUV, watching as agent Willis ran ahead, pushing the elevator button. Agents Ellison and Margolis escorted Molly to the elevator behind him, and they all walked in. I watched the number as it ticked from G up to 1, then through to level 4 where it stopped. Molly was on the 4th floor.

I froze time, and walked up to the card reader. I didn't want the cameras to see me at all. I was going to be stealthier than a ninja. I wasn't going to give the cameras a clear view of my face, not even in a single frame. I wanted to scan the card without standing there. I returned to the car and found a rubber band on the floor in the back seat.

The rubber band didn't want to stretch, but I was able to get it on the card reader and slide the card into the band. I slunk back to the car, and let time run again, just long enough to watch the light on the card reader turn green, and I heard the door click. I froze time again, and ran forward, taking the card and rubber band, and I opened the door.

I ran up 4 flights of stairs, and opened the door into the 4th floor office. Inside was not as flashy or decorated as I was led to believe an FBI office should be on TV. There were no glass walls with photos tacked up on boards. It looked like a small cubicle farm with some closed-door offices and doors labeled 'Interrogation Room 1' and 'Interrogation Room 2.' In between the two interrogation rooms was a room labeled 'Observation.'

In 3 of the cubicles, two men and one woman were working at their computers. One man had a still of several security cameras. The woman had a dossier on Molly, complete with her picture, and a third man was playing Minesweeper on his computer, though he had a paper copy of the dossier on Molly.

I opened the door labeled 'Observation' and walked inside. There was a technician sitting behind a row of monitors, staring at a window into a room with a table and three chairs.

I guessed that the window was actually a one way mirror. The opposite wall had a similar window into 'Interrogation Room 2', but the lights were off. The lights were low in the observation room I was in, and the room had no visible cameras. I found a dark corner behind a sofa where I could stand camouflaged in the black hoodie that I was wearing, and I dropped the FBI windbreaker on the floor, kicking it under the sofa.

Convinced that I wouldn't be seen, I restarted time. I again felt a twinge of guilt about using my power so much. It was tiring in a way, like a muscle that I hadn't used in a long time. I knew that helping and watching out for Molly was a necessity, as was figuring out what the FBI knew about me and my abilities.

I watched as Agents Ellison and Willis escorted Molly into the room, indicating that she should take the single seat on one side of the table.

The two men left, and entered the dark observation room with agent Margolis following.

"How's she looking, Carter?" Agent Ellison asked the technician at the computers.

"Nervous. Hot, too." Said Carter, who was typing on a laptop in front of the screens.

"She is one hot little tamale." Agent Ellison admitted. "I don't get why she was chasing our mystery magician. He should have been chasing her." All four men laughed.

"Ah, maybe he's gay. Maybe he's even better looking than her. Doesn't matter either way, the nerds in D.C. are taking him apart like the science project that he is." Agent Margolis joked. I could see a shiver of revulsion from agent Willis.

"I still say we keep him alive, see if we can get to know him. He did save those people on the bus. Maybe he doesn't deserve elimination. I mean, decades of chasing down supernatural leads, and we're actually going to ice the first one we find?" Willis asked.

That answered two questions for me. As far as the FBI knew, I was unique, and they had plans that didn't include my survival.

"This isn't a TV show." Agent Ellison spat. "Yeah, that guy has power, but he's sloppy. Even if we could control him, we'd always be looking over our shoulder. No, we put a dart in his neck, track where he teleports to, and collect him while he's sleeping. He'll never wake up. It's humane, and safest for everyone involved. We can't risk this guy on the run, and can't risk that he'll never turn against us or his country.

"You see the possibility for a superhero: Superman without the cape. I see a human being. Each and every one of us is capable of great and terrible things at the same time. What happens when he has a bad day, huh? What happens when someone pisses him off? What happens when he gets drunk or high? What if he decides he deserves more respect than he's getting? What if he decides he needs more money?

"Maybe he could teleport all the gold out of Fort Knox before the first alarm goes off or he could rob any bank in the country, no guns or dye packs, just... poof..." Agent Ellison made a gesture with his hands. "And it's all his; we could never track him, never trace him.

"You see people as good or evil, Willis. Give this job enough time, and you'll learn that every human, every one of us, is sitting on the edge of evil, of insanity. We're all flawed, dark beings wrapped in smiles and good intentions. What would it take to turn him into a serial killer or a terrorist? Power corrupts, and this guy is sitting on a truckload of power."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. These men, sworn law enforcement, had already tried and convicted me of a crime not yet committed, and the penalty was death. Suddenly, the deep guilt of using my power was replaced by a sense of self-preservation and anger.

I would not become the supervillain that they thought I was capable of. I would, however, defend Molly and myself with my life. They would never dissect me in the lab, and I was willing to use every bit of power at my disposal to see that goal through. I cast away my old fears, and embraced the power I had.

The four men stood staring at Molly, watching her fidgeting nervously in the chair. Eventually, agent Ellison spoke. "Alright, I think she's sweated enough. Let's start this show. Willis I want you with me. Margolis, I want you ready to relay orders and information as we get it. And stay in touch over comms. As soon as we get a name, I want the HRT strike team on the road to his last location. We hit him hard and fast, dart him if we can, shoot to kill if he gets aggressive."

The three men left the room, and a moment later, Willis and Ellison appeared though the door in the interrogation room, and sat in the chairs across from Molly. I looked at the tech, sitting in the room with me. One of the monitors showed Molly in true color, and one seemed to show a heat map of her face. I guessed that this was some sort of lie detector setup.

Molly looked nervous. I froze time, and found a post-it note and pen on the tech's desk. I wanted to write her a novel, tell her about the conversation I had witnessed, and coach her about what to say. I decided to go with a simpler approach instead. I pulled off a single sheet and wrote 5 lines of a note in big block letters:

'I am watching.

Don't trust them.

I will follow your lead.

Anything you need, just ask.

Keep them talking. -T'

I saw no easy path out of our situation. I could freeze time, grab Molly and run, but I doubted that would be a lasting solution. Giving myself up was no longer an option. I hoped that Molly could stonewall them, while asking questions that would get them talking, and find a lasting solution.

I opened the door and walked into the bright interrogation room. One of Molly's hands was in her lap. I placed the note in her hand, then left, closing the door behind me, replacing the pen right where it had been, and returning to my dark corner. I tapped the switch in my head, and time started again.

I could see a little jolt from Molly, and her eyes cast down to the slip of paper in her hand. The agents didn't seem to notice. I watched the screen with the lie detector, and saw Molly's face grow warm. She couldn't hide just a little bit of a smile.

Agent Ellison took out a small tablet and tapped on the screen a few times. He showed a video to Molly. She watched with interest, a new confidence on her beautiful face.

"This is a video of the bus accident from yesterday morning. This is you right here." He pointed. "This figure in the black hooded sweatshirt disappears. It appears that you had been watching him, following him."

The video played for a few more minutes, and everyone was silent. I could hear the audio from the tablet as the crash occurred.

"We have one more angle from another camera that shows you chasing the man in black between buildings before we lost you both in the crowd." Agent Willis said.

"I'm failing to see a crime here." Molly said with confidence. "Are you sure this is within the FBI's jurisdiction?"

"Miss McGuiness..." Agent Ellison said with a sigh. "We're the FBI. Our jurisdiction is American soil, anywhere we want to go. As for whether or not this is a crime, you're right. By itself, teleporting 16 passengers off a doomed bus is not a crime. Our particular branch of the FBI is interested in identifying and containing people with supernatural abilities.

"The man you were chasing, the man who somehow teleported 16 people out of a bus in the blink of an eye, can you use your imagination? Can you think what he would be capable of?"

Molly gave a scoffing laugh. "No good deed goes unpunished, eh? You see a miracle, and you immediately think of the criminal potential of the person behind it?"

"We just need a name. The man in the black hoodie." Agent Willis pointed at the tablet. "We know that you know him, and we know that he caused... that he was responsible for teleporting the people off the bus and the man out of the car."

"Are you talking about magic here? Seriously? Which one of you is agent Mulder and which one is Scully?" Molly gave a derisive laugh. "You're after some sort of guardian angel, for what? You think you can stop this person? Use them? Lock them up if you can't control them?" Molly asked.