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Alex Dutra looking at himself in the mirror, his red, white and chocolate fur glistening and seeming to sparkle in the sunlight that shone through his bedroom window. He sighed, fixing his large framed glasses and zipped up his favorite white jacket. Why did all of this have to happen me, he thought as he turned and saw his backpack sitting on his bed. He stared at it, watching as it began to lift off the bed on its own and float over to the waiting red panda. He reached out and swung it over his back. Of all the people that could have evolved, what did it have to be me?

He walked downstairs to see his housemate sitting at the table with a bowl of cereal. The kangaroo looked up to him, giving him a good morning smile. "Mornin', how'd you sleep?"

Alex shrugged. "Fine, I guess... hey Neal, can you drop me off at class today, that way you have the car if you need it?"

Neal raised an eyebrow. "Sure, but I'm not planning on going anywhere today. You okay?" The panda nodded, but didn't say anything, he didn't really feel like explaining himself. "Are you having more trouble with your, uh," he lowered his voice, as if someone outside might hear him if he spoke too loud. "You know, abilities?"

Neal was the only one that Alex had ever told about his powers, well, he didn't actually 'tell' the kangaroo. Two years ago, when Neal first moved in, Alex had very little control over his abilities and it was kind of hard to hide that fact when everything in the house starts to float randomly. Neal took it rather well when the panda felt that he needed the explanation, but they both agreed that they should keep this secret between just them. People who have evolved (people like Alex) are hunted down and killed by a group that goes by the name 'Purity', a group that believes that people with supernatural abilities are evil and the world should be cleansed from their unnatural presents. It was a ridiculous religion, but half, if not more, of the world's population followed this persecution, making it hard to find people to trust.

Alex shook his head. "No, I'm just going to stay out longer and didn't want to keep the car..."

"Its fine with me if you keep the car, but if you don't want to, I wont stop ya?"

Alex shifted and looked away from the kangaroo's kind eyes. "Can you please just take me?"

Neal sighed and stood up, half a smile on his muzzle. "Sure thing, buddy."

The kangaroo was built, compared to Alex's thin frame. Big muscles, thick tail, golden fur, the man was practically a god with his looks and his kind nature just seemed to make him look even more better, but Neal would never admit that. Alex wished he had the balls to tell him straight up how he felt about him, but that would be a stupid move, knowing that the kangaroo had a girlfriend and everything.

Alex didn't really consider himself 'gay' or even straight for that matter. When he was younger, he had always told everyone that he was never going to have a relationship, never going to have a girlfriend or anyone romantically, and that's never changed. It's not like he's never 'wanted' a relationship, but who would want to be in a relationship with him? He wasn't attractive, he wasn't strong, or athletic, and he barely had control over his abilities, making it dangerous for anyone to try and get that close to him, even he himself didn't know his full capabilities and didn't really feel like finding it out.

Besides, the world was dying anyways. People didn't have time for relationships with people dying in Africa due to a spreading virus, wars breaking out all over Asia, and not to mention the Purity organization growing in numbers. It was a dangerous time, especially for someone like Alex. He just wished that he was brave enough to do something about it, but really, what could he do?

~*~

Alex walked down the middle of the sidewalk, listening as cars drove by and people bustled about their own business. Classes were well over, leaving the panda to wonder around for hours because he didn't feel like going home quite yet. The sun had already set, the moon already taking its place with stars littering the night sky, lighting Alex path as he walked. The street lights illuminated a dim, orange-ish light as he continued with his hand in his pockets and nose pointed to the ground.

He thought about his powers, how much different his entire body felt since after he evolved. He could feel everything, he could feel the lamp post a few feet in front of him, he could feel the pebbles and tiny rocks on the ground, he could feel the man that walked a few feet behind him, knowing what he was wearing without even a glance. Neal used to be able to scare him by sneaking up behind him before his powers settled down, now, he could always tell when the kangaroo was lurching behind him. Though, the abilities got quite annoying when he would feel the kangaroo go into the bathroom to take a shower. He could feel every inch of the male's body, practically seeing his nude body, but never being able to actually touch it, and nothing irritated him more than pointless eagerness.

Alex turned a corner onto another street. He should probably be getting home soon, it was getting pretty late and Neal would be wondering where he was before long. He'd made up his mind on going home when he could suddenly feel the presents of the man that had been following him now be only a few inches behind him. He could barely turn around when he felt something hard hit him on the side of his head. He stumbled into an alley way, dazed and confused. He could feel the man pointing something at him as he backed away deeper in between the buildings. When Alex's vision came back clearly, he could see a hooded man pointing a loaded gun at him.

Alex held his hands up. "I-I'll give you everything I have..." he said, but the man didn't move. He went to reach for his wallet when there was a loud bang. He could feel the bullet on its way to Alex's head, holding his arms up protectively as he felt it stop suddenly. He moved his arms and opened his eyes to see the shimmering golden bullet spin in place only a few inches from his forehead. He looked past the bullet to the man, who looked equally as shocked. He fired a few more rounds, but all stopped before they could come in contact with the panda.

Alex could feel an uncalled for anger and rage building up inside his chest. His eyes flared and he lost control of his emotions, his body... and his powers. With a quick flick of his arm, each one of the bullets zipped out in random directions, one of them managing to nail the thug in the arm, not a fatal blow. The man turned to run, but was stopped and thrown into the air by an invisible force. He came back down, but never hit the pavement. Alex could feel everything inside the man's body, everything from the mettle screws in the man's foot, to his quickly beating heart. Alex reached out and began to slowly make a clutching motion, practically feeling the man's heart in the palm of his hand. The man gasped. Alex squeezed tighter. Tighter. Tighter.

Then nothing. A sharp pain shot through Alex's right shoulder. He hardly registered the loud bang that illuminated from behind him. Darkness surrounded his vision, closing in rapidly before... nothing.

~*~

Alex woke to a pounding headache and tremendous pain in his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see bright ceiling lights. He found himself on a bed in a white room, nothing inhabiting it except for himself and the bed. He looked down to his wrists, finding handcuffs on each one, locking his to the bed. He could feel the mechanisms inside and could unlock himself easily, but the sound of a door opening stopped him from making any attempts.

"Ah, you're awake!" a tenor, yet gruff voice said. Alex looked up to see a tall, muscular, well groomed Rottweiler leaning against the doorframe. "How'd you sleep?"

Alex looked around. He wasn't scared, much to his surprise, in fact, he didn't feel anything. Last night's episode and feels haven't quite left his body. "Where am I?" he asked, still inspecting the room.

The Rottweiler stepped futher into the room and into Alex's feeling range. He didn't have to see the Rottweiler to know that he was wearing a thin, tight tank-top and low, baggy shorts. "America," he said sarcastically. Alex gave him a look that practically screamed 'don't test me.' The Rottweiler chuckled. "Calm down kid," he said. "No one's gonna hurt ya."

"Then why am I handcuffed to the bed?"

The Rottweiler scoffed. "Oh puh-lease! I know you could have gotten out of those 'cuffs whenever you wanted."

"You still haven't answered my question," Alex said, hearing the loud click as both cuffs unclamped themselves from the panda's wrists. He was somewhat surprised at his attitude, he's never reacted like this and wondered why he was acting so... cool given the conditions.

"You're at the E Factor's base! Or at least, one of them... anywho, we brought you hear to ask you some questions." The Rottweiler explained. "Oh, by the way, I'm Jared! Pleasure to meet you, Alex."

"E Factor?" Alex repeated, pushing himself to the edge of the bed as he realized that he was wearing nothing but a paper gown. He had heard of the E Factor before, according to rumors, they were an organization that basically fought back against the Purity organization, harboring and rescuing evolutionists where the Purity would kill them. "What does the Big E what with me?"

Jared smiled. "We want you to help us out. We're looking for new recruits to help us out in our war against Purity and we could really use someone as special as you."

"No," Alex said, pushing himself off the bed and onto his feet, he made his way for the door, wanting to go home and sleep for the rest of the month.

"You're just going to walk off? Without even thinking about it?" The Rottweiler asked, following the panda out through the door. Alex found himself in a large hall, giving aria more of a hospital atmosphere.

"Yep"

"So you don't want to know why you're evolving, or why you're personality has changed so drastically in the past twenty-four hours?"

"Nope"

Jared scoffed. "I know you're lying."

Alex turned to face the taller male. "How? You don't know a thing about me!"

"Actually, I know everything about you." Alex rolled his eyes and turned to walk away. "In the third grade, you locked yourself in the janitor's closet because Billy Bucks was pulling your tail and making fun of your fur color," Alex stopped. "In twelfth grade, you saved a five year old girl from falling off a tall bridge when she was playing too close to the edge, that was the first day you realized you had evolved." He turned to face the Rottweiler again. "And right now, you're wondering if you should kill me right now."

"How-?"

Jared tapped his forehead. "Mind-reading. Comes in handy, ya know?"

"You're a-... You're like me?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"What? You didn't think you were the only one with powers, did you?" Jared smiled and shrugged. "So what do ya say? Wanna join our little group and find out more about yourself?"

Alex thought about it, he really did want to know more about his powers, but he wasn't sure if he trusted the organization... or the Rottweiler for that matter.

Jared waited a moment longer. "Tell ya what," he said after a while. "You stick around for a few weeks, get a feel of how things work around here, and come back to me with a decision of what you wanna do. I won't make ya stay if ya don't want to."

Alex looked around, seeing several people in white lab coats, but other looked like normal, everyday people. He felt them, feeling something odd about most of them, feeling something odd about Jared. His whole aura seemed to be different from normal people's, maybe it was because he had an ability. He looked back up to the Rottweiler. "Fine, two weeks, that's it."

He smiled. "Great, follow me!"

~Part*Two~

Miles Johnson tossed his notebook into the garbage as he went through his black skulled backpack. School textbooks, into the garbage. Half-finished homework, into the garbage. Pencils, pens and erasers, into the garbage. Everything that once was in his favorite (and only) backpack was now in his overflowing little green garbage can. His whiskers twitched and large ears flicked in frustration, long tail thumping against his bed as the shouts from downstairs grew louder. This was the seventh time in five days that they were arguing, his parents. He could hear their angry and hateful shouts as clear as day, but chose to focus on the sound of the bustling city instead. He looked up from his bed and into the mirror. A young chinchilla with a permanent frown plastered on his face stared back. He hardly recognized himself, he used to be the one boy in school that always had a smile on his face, he used to be fun to be around, easy to talk to, always bright and cheery, now, he hardly had any friends anymore, he never smiled for anyone or anything, and fun wasn't anything he's experienced in a long time.

He opened his dresser drawer, taking a few shirts and pants and plunging them messily into his backpack. Tonight was the night before his thirteenth birthday, but he hardly thought of that as he stuffed some more clothing into his bag. He was done with this place, he was done with his parents arguing, the hateful glairs they give him ever since the... incident. He couldn't take it anymore, they didn't love him, or even care about him for that matter, so why should he feel obligated to stay. They never abused him physically, but their words and their looks hurt more than any cut or injury ever could. 'Sticks and stone may break my bone but words will never hurt me' was a bunch of bullshit, Miles just hated finding that out the hard way.

He looked into his backpack, cloths and food to last him a few days was all he really had to bring with him. He didn't own very much, seems how his family was rather fanatically poor, so he didn't really have anything else to pack. He zipped up his backpack and swung it over his shoulder as a loud crash came from outside his door and his dad yelling even louder. Miles snatched the letter he had already written from off his small desk and placed it on his bed. He didn't really have any last words to his parents, so all he wrote on the surface was 'Have a nice fucking life, don't miss me because I won't miss you'.

Harsh words for his last letter to his parents, but he felt they deserved it. He opened his window and stepped out onto the iron latter. He slid down it and onto the hard sidewalk in the cold night air. He zipped up his jacket, shifted his backpack, and began walking, not even once looking back to the apartment building. Not even once looking back to his old home.

~*~

Don Franklyn sipped at his beer at the bar of an old style saloon. The smell of cigarette ash filled the air and the sound of the small tube television was all that could be heard. A big bosomed, large framed feline woman stood behind the bar cleaning shot glasses and watching the small television. The room was pretty empty except for Don, the woman, and two other men sitting at a small round table and talking amongst themselves.

He raised the beer mug up to eye level and looked at himself. A shaggy furred, grey eyed coyote looked back with a black expression. He sighed as he lowered the glass. He wasn't the most attractive looking man in the world, but he wasn't sure who would be attracted to a rouged, dirty, old dog? Not that he was looking for a relationship, but it would be nice to find a nice women to settle down with, maybe start a family, but then again, wasn't that every man's dream when he passed the age of forty?

Don pushed himself from the wooden bar stool as he finished his last swig of beer and paid his fine. He marched out the door with his coat buttoned up and cowboy hat fastened on his head, triangular ears pocking out freely. He looked up to the moon as he made his way to his truck. It wasn't full, but the moon was certainly bright, lighting his path where the street's lights didn't reach. As he walked, he took a cigarette from his pocket and popped it in between his lips, lighting it with his lighter and feeling the warmth from the flame on his muzzle. He puffed a few smokes as he neared his truck, a dark down rusted vehicle that looked it has seem much better days. He sat on his leather seats and started the truck. It coughed and vibrated before coming to life with a loud blast from the stereo as it resumed his hard rock music CD. He wasn't really affected by the outrageous noise that continued to pound his eardrums and rattle the old vehicle on its wheels, though he wasn't really listening to it in the first place.

The coyote drove on and on. One the highway, through small towns and cities. Don didn't have a home to go back to, no, his home was his truck, his job was surviving, his hobby was drinking, his life was running. Running from what? Purity. They've been tracking him down for years now, though they've never been able to catch him because he's never stayed in one place long enough to get caught. They've wanted him for many reasons, destruction, murder, theft, and because of the dangerous ability he possessed, given that Purity wasn't all that wanted him dead or alive. The government, big business people, he even heard that the E Factor wanted him, though he can't remember ever pissing them off, but he then again, he doesn't remember half the people he's pissed off.

Don's past was full of nothing but loss and death, home wasn't something he could easily find, friends were scarce, family probably thought he was either dead or in jail, life itself was spitting the coyote in the eye and with every single day that passed by, death looked more and more inviting.

He spun the wheel and parked in an empty parking space of a supermarket. He was in a city, New York city he thought, but he hadn't really been paying attention to his location lately. He walked into the market and looked around. Not a whole lot of people were around, but there was plenty of video cameras around, making it pretty much useless if he planned on shoplifting. But then again, he wanted to shoplift, he would have gone to a smaller convenient store instead of a large popular supermarket.

He walked down the aisle with a half full cart of food and two pairs of shirts as he made his way for the checkout. The checkout line was within sight, but only one line was open with three people in front of him. He sighed and leaned on his cart, bracing his head up with his left arm. He watched the first person as she bought her items, an attractive young woman that looked as like she would be a fine person to stay the night with, until he saw the ring on her left hand. Fantasy popped like an overfilled balloon.

His gaze lowered to a young chinchilla, he looked to be no older than twelve or thirteen at the most. The boy had his hood up, but his face was visible, his big blue eyes telling his whole story with one look. The boy looked around for a moment before reaching out and pocketing a candy bar. "Hey kid!" the cashier said as he was finished with the second customer. "I saw that!"

"Calm down, buddy," Don said in his naturally gruff and low voice. "The boy's with me." he started loading his items onto the moving counter and glanced down at the boy. "Well, you gonna put it up 'er?"

The boy looked from Don, to the cashier, just waiting for the boy to make any attempt to steel the bar until he finally tossed the candy bar up onto the conveyer belt and shoved his little hands back into his jacket pockets.

"Thanks for uh, helping me out back there..." the boy said as they walked away from the cashier and his suspicious glares. "What's your name?"

"Don," he said, pushing the cart around a few people as they stepped outside.

"I'm Miles," the boy said, stopping as they walked out the doors. The coyote looked back to the boy curiously. "Thanks again," he said as he started to walk away, stuffing his hands and the candy bar into his pockets.

"Ay!" Don said, getting the chinchilla's attention with perked ears. "You need a ride?"

The boy opened his mouth to reply when the sound of squeeling tires drowned out his small voice. Both of their attention was snapped to an incoming white van, speeding directly towards the coyote. Purity. Don bared his teeth in a snarl as he waved the kid off. "Get outta here! Run!"

The van came to a screeching halt as several armored men came out with guns. They fired at the coyote as soon as he was within clear sight, bullets whizzing towards him in countless numbers, but none of them touched him, instead the appeared to bounce off and around him as he stood there motionless, body stiff as he concentrated his ability. The air around him seemed to vibrate, making him look blurry as his form waved in place. The bullets kept coming and the coyote kept vibrating, feeling his energy drain at an alarming rate. His ears started to bleed from all the vibrations and his nose drained blood from exsaustion, he could feel himself passing out until a yelp snapped his attention to the boy standing still behind him. Blood drenched the boys cloths as he clutched his stomach in pain, red oozing from his center.

"Damn it!" Don cursed, turning back to the Purity solders and concentrating on directing the vibrations to his fists, still letting his body vibrate to redirect the incoming bullets. He dashed towards the group of five solders with unnatural speed and launching his fist into the first man's abdomen, feeling his hand penetrate the man's armor and flesh before he pulled out and attacked the next nearest man. He could feel that he didn't have much energy left, he'd have to move faster. He landed a few more punches on the third man before he launched a blast of vibrations to the last two men, sending them flying into the vehicles behind them.

Don dropped to his knees, panting heavily as more blood poured from his ears and nose. His fist was drenched with the warm sticky blood from the first man, but that hardly fazed him as he remembered the boy. He stood up and made his way to the boy, nearly falling over through dizziness with each step. The boy was gasping for air when Don finally made it to him. He clutched his stomach, a puddle of dark red surrounding the boy's body. He gasped a few more times, looking up at the coyote before...

Nothing. He stopped breathing. His eyes became distant and lifeless. Another life lost...