When Colin emerged from his chrysalis, he found a lot had happened over the course of two days. He had observed some of it but Kristy filled him in on his gaps in knowledge.

  The other Changed had awoken and been introduced to their borderline apocalyptic situation in the town. They had moved houses while Colin was out, but thankfully nobody had been hurt.

  To Colin’s relief, everyone was working together and they had even managed to convert a few more Changed without his help. The more he watched everyone working together as a community, the more it made him realize that Kristy was right. These people needed their help and they were the best ones to do the job.

  Jenny had helped Higgins awaken his powers and he was now capable of healing in a similar, yet weaker way to Kristy. After that, Jenny, Kristy and Higgins started plans of a daily class to help the rest of the Changed awaken any powers they might have. There had only been one class so far and it had produced little results, but it gave everyone hope and a purpose. They had taken to referring to themselves as the Awakened instead of the Cured Changed.

  Higgins had been in minimal contact with Holly and filled Colin in on what little information he gained from her. For now, Higgins insisted they keep the presence of his working phone a secret since he didn’t want any more panicked reactions like Jack’s.

  Now, they were all crammed into a circle in the living room. Some sat and others stood.

  “There’s going to be a raid on the town tomorrow,” Colin announced without preamble, “From what I’ve overheard, they will be rounding up packs of wild Changed and abducting them for whatever experiments they’re planning. I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and I want to stop as many as I can.”

  Kristy sat next to him and squeezed his hand. She wasn’t a fan of the plan, but they had talked about it beforehand and both agreed it was necessary. If they didn’t help out, there was nobody else to count on. Not even their own government.

  Nobody said anything, so Colin continued, “This isn’t about declaring war or anything like that. I just disagree with what’s going on and want to help people just like we helped you. I don’t expect any of you to lend a hand or even put yourself at risk, but having volunteers to drive the abducted Changed from one location to another would be appreciated. My goal is to not kill anyone and to leave these government agents alive. All I wanna do is steal their vehicles and rescue the Changed that they abduct. After the Changed are rescued, I’ll take all of the subdued government agents and drop them off in one of their own vans at the border of their perimeter they’ve set around the town.”

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  “So how do you plan on stopping them without killing anyone?” Jack asked.

  “Would you mind volunteering?” Colin asked.

  Jack fidgeted nervously looking around for someone to rescue him, “No?”

  Colin nodded, “Fair enough. How about someone bring me a glass of water and some food coloring then?”

  Colin was making this whole thing up as he went. He had an understanding of what his capabilities were, but had yet to put them to practice. Several times in the past he had used a scionic blast to shatter glass. It was always in moments of great emotion, and he’d never taken the time to explore his capabilities with it. After his most recent development inside the chrysalis, though, he knew instinctually that he could control the ability.

  They set the water and food coloring in front of Collin, and he scooted it to the center of the circle where everyone could see it.

  “Hypnosites have a special relationship with living things and frequencies,” Colin said, while dropping the red food dye into the water and then stirring it around with his finger. He was tapping into his memories of the gaze upon him when he was deep inside the chrysalis as he spoke, “Each can influence each other, yet they can exist independently of each other. Yes, I’m saying the tree in the woods makes a sound regardless of the life around it.”

  Nobody laughed at Colin’s joke. They all stared in rapt attention at the red water, so he kept going. He let out a low frequency with his voice, targeting and isolating the food dye within the water and using gentle scionic waves he separated the water from the dye. He let the dye go so he could speak again, “Hypnosites, living beings, and frequency. Each one has multifaceted potential and each can act as a catalyst in their own right. That’s how I’ll stop them without killing them.”

  There was a pregnant silence around the room.

  Higgins broke through the silence, “Umm, by separating food dye?”

  Colin came back to himself a little bit, “What? No, by using the chemicals in their brains to put them to sleep.”

  “Whoah!” Jenny shouted and clapped, “Daddy has sleeping powers!”

  Other people started to clap, and Colin felt embarrassed at the praise. All he wanted to do was reassure them that he planned to not kill anyone, but he accidentally turned it into some kind of weird presentation. He sent a pulse of emotions to Kristy asking for her to rescue him.

  Kristy caught on and took over like the wonderful woman she was, “Let’s open the floor to discussion. If anybody has any ideas to make tomorrow's plan successful, please speak up.”

  Colin wasn’t sure what came over him with the water and the dye, but he was beginning to suspect that his exposure to that great being’s gaze had affected him in more ways than one.