Chapter 2

Once Spencer is cleaned up, he seems to be sleeping peacefully. If anyone is with him, and it's quite silent in the room, you will recognize whatever he's mumbling is quite academic, possibly Plato?

Arthur is the last to enter, except for Ellis, he takes the remote for the TV and places it in the middle of the coffee stand the chairs in the room are placed around.

Almost immediately, the TV flickers on, there's a brief flash of snow (no signal). Then, flipping through scenes like channels on the television, it looks like the individual positions watched by the CCTV cameras... After a few quick switches, it settles on Spencer in a split-screen feed of the one camera in the infirmary. On both sides, Spencer is lying down on the infirmary bed. Captions begin to scroll across the bottom of the TV. "Can you guys keep a secret? I'm a mutant like you, but with less 'demonstrable' powers. I didn't know I had them until the mall. I wanted to show you first, so it doesn't appear like just nosebleeds and stuff... the best way I can think to explain is that my brain has been 'upgrading'... Just watch."

Two titles appear above the split-screen feeds on the TV, on the left is titled Real, on the right Recorded.

On the left, Spencer gets up out of the infirmary bed and walks out of the infirmary, while the right side shows him still lying down. As he walks into the hall, the TV display changes to the hallway downstairs, the left side shows Spencer walking through the hall, the right shows the empty hallway, occasionally cycling back to the infirmary, where Spencer continues to lie quietly. He gets in the elevator, there's a camera in there pointing down from the ceiling, again the left shows Spencer in the elevator whistling to the elevator music, the right side an empty elevator. You hear the elevator ding its arrival on the 2nd floor, and Spencer walks out and sits in the empty seat between Fee and Ariel on the armrest. The camera feed shows the group of you on both sides, nearly the same, with Spencer is missing on the right side, then switches back to him sleeping in the infirmary.

The captions scroll up again: "Don't freak out, this is what makes me want to keep this a secret!"

The screen changes again, to what looks like scrolling files. Mugshot photos of the group they encountered at the mall, files on a drug called ReNew and what looks like police reports on the mall incident, and ongoing investigations noting how high school students are being hired by an organization after being hooked on ReNew. There's also mention of the 6th suspect who got away, and reports of how they can shapeshift and pose as other people.

Spencer sighs heavily and the captions read: "Lame, right? Just slightly better than nose bleeds and fainting?" As the TV shuts off again, Spencer clears his throat but sits silent, and leans over to Fee.

Logan stays silent as he listens to everyone else. Thinking for a minute, he finally breaks his silence. "I think Arthur is right. That may be the only way into figuring out what's going on. Yet we have to get past the test before we can even think about infiltrating the gang. Once we manage to pass and are allowed outside again, we can begin to investigate." Logan looks over at Arthur before continuing to speak. "When we do make a move against this gang, Arthur, it's a bad idea to go in alone. If things go bad, which they quickly could, you'll have no one to watch your back. Since you have the skills, I propose this idea. Pick someone that could be your so called partner. It could be for speed, brains or even muscle. One thing is for sure though, don't go in alone."

Liberty sort of off-hand interjects at some point while Spencer is talking, side-eyeing the others to make sure by their expressions that she's not off or something, "But she didn't give us a time limit... did she? We could just study until then..." She uses her hands like a scale gesture, both sides tipping occasionally. "Like, I dunno your Mom outside of a few minutes but unless you think she's gunna' throw in a pop quiz at some point? And I haven't tried with other people." Her expression darkens. "I don't think I want to, either. What if they get stuck in a solid object somehow?"

"They gave me kind of the cliff notes version of things," she whispers with Logan softly when the attention is off her and everyone is focusing on Spencer again. "If you want to give me a more in depth one, I think I would like that." She gives him another friendly smile, this time meeting his eyes with building confidence.

Logan will do the same.

Yays, let quiz!