Young Adel by FrozenFire

TEAM: Reavers

SECTOR: UPTOWN

KIT CLASS: Empathy

Victor Adel was a good man whose construction company made him very wealthy. In a city were buildings are often damaged or demolished, a lot of rebuilding is required. He loved his wife and six year old son very much and they were happy together. To everyone in Khazan they had a picture perfect life.

However, no life in Khazan is without its trials. There had been hard times for Victor, times when the heroes of Khazan had the villains more or less in check, when business had been slow due to lack of wreakage. In those desperate times, Victor rented out his supply storages to a certain man, a man who claims to be called Smith even though his associates call him Boss or Lieutenant. Smith paid him considerably, under the condition that their arrangement would be under the table. Victor didn't ask why. He knew, or at least suspected, that "Smith" was part of the Syndicate and that he would be better off not knowing what Smith had stored in the company warehouses. Eventually, business picked up; Victor thought of sending Smith and his associates on their way, but decided that the extra money wouldn't hurt. He was afraid to tell the Syndicate what to do as well.

Meanwhile, Victor used his newfound wealth to move his family Uptown. When his son was three, Victor put him in a private starter school. Victor quickly surpassed the other children. At five he also began showing a glimmer of psychic abilities: he could tell how people felt even though they hid it, he could sometimes glean phrases from a persons mind, and, when upset, he could give people an intense headache by staring at them.

So the years past.

After six years of his business and family flourishing Victor decided he didn't need the Syndicate tarnishing his conscience. He called up Smith and told him his decision and told him that he had 48 hours to move his operation out of the warehouses before the Sentinels were informed; then he hung up.

It was four in the morning when Victor awoke. He knew something was wrong, but couldn't tell what. What had woken him up? He listened carefully and heard nothing. Suddenly hungry, Victor decided to get a snack from the kitchen before going back to bed; his stomach must have woken him up. He walked down the hall into the living room and noticed his wife standing in the middle of the room staring back at him. Her eyes were vacant as though she were sleepwalking.

[no, not sleepwalking. she's being manipulated like a puppet. neither her nor her subconscious is in control.] a voice whispered in his mind.

His wife began taking slow steps backwards. "Angela, come here. Let's go back to bed." Victor called.

Angela continued her measured backwards steps. Victor tried to go to her but found he could only walk as slowly as his wife, despite how hard he tried. If she didn't stop she'd walk into--

[wrong again. not into. through. you're going to watch your wife go through the window.] the whisper of a mental voice said.

The distance between Angela and the window slowly shrunk but the distance between husband and wife stayed agonizingly the same. If she went through the window she'd fall forty stories. The window slid open on its own as though inviting Angela into the empty air. If Victor could just get to her he could hold her tight, he could pull her away from the window and they could go back to their happy lives! So he told himself; so he hoped. But the Syndicate didn't take lightly to being scorned.

Angela reached the window. As she toppled over the edge her eyes cleared up. Her face grew confused. "Vic--" she began, then she was gone. Victor tried to scream but couldn't. Angela's scream reached Victor through the window but quickly cut of.

[now if i had let you scream you would not have heard your wife's death cry] the voice that had invaded his mind whispered coldly. Victor then notice the three men in the room. One stood by the front door, and another was sitting on the couch behind Victor. The one on the couch was staring at him intently, without moving, without blinking. [a pleasure to meet you victor] the man whispered telepathically. The third man was Smith, holding a glass of bourbon and looking grim.

"Nasty little business, this is. I'm sorry, but I've been giving orders so long that I don't take them well anymore. I also don't like being threatened, and when the Sentinels are involved I can't let there be a chance that you'd call them anyway." Smith walked up to Victor and drained the glass. "I also hate it when someone hangs up on me." he said calmly. Then he smashed the glass on Victor's head, knocking him to his knees. Smith kicked him in the stomach and walked towards the door. "Take everything. Then torch the place." Victor heard him tell the man by the door before blood blurred his vision. The doorman walked over to Victor and grabbed his head. "If you can look into my eyes, there will be no pain. If you don't, it won't be pleasant." Victor chose to look in his eyes, and the pain drained out of him, along with everything else: his emotions, his memories, his future plans. His last thought was of his son, standing over him, behind the doorman.

The doorman moved out of his way and the boy knelt beside his father. The whispering man watched as the boy realized his father was alive and reach for his father's mind. The boy couldn't feel it. His mother was dead, father was brain dead, and he watched both happen.

[he should not have crossed us. the syndicate settles disputes with blood.] the whisperer sent to the boy. The boy turned on him with glowing eyes and agony ripped through the whisperer's head. He was vaguely aware of a vase colliding with the boy. The pain receded and he caught his breath. Then wearily walked towards the boy.

"We can't kill him. The Boss said he gets the inheritance at twenty-one. A few strings were pulled at Child Services; I'll have custody of him in a week. We'll hone and use his power until then. If you're still alive you could even be the triggerman. Then the Adel fortune will be donated to a charity front that finances the Syndicate. So, you see, the boy is our long term investment."

The whisperer glared at the unconscious boy and strode out of the room. The next morning, the papers reported a great tragedy:

"Adel Penthouse Up In Flames: Son, Sole Survivor, Sent To Live With Godfather."

Personality: For the next 12 years the boy was raised in the Syndicate. He seemed to have lost his talents due to his traumatic experiences, so Smith merely used him as an errand boy. The boy was made comfortable and given anything he asked for, but all he ever asked for was books. His taste in books ranged from Spooky and Scary Stories to The Theories of Quantum Physics and Electrodynamics.

On his eighteenth birthday, the boy vanished. Smith had people searching for him to no avail for three years. Occasionally, Smith would receive greeting cards with mocking or caustic messages: "I hate you", "Burn in Hell", "Enjoy your birthday, you may not have another", or "Polo!". On the boy's twenty-first birthday, the Adel fortune vanished from the bank as well, and someone bought a building in uptown and moved into the penthouse. Adel was back in town and not even trying to hide.

Mental Isolation

Mental Exile

Complex Concepts

Emotion Manifestation

Mind Games

Vengeance