T.J.

[Metahumans; humanity born with extra-normal powers and abilities. They know not who they are at birth; their powers begin to manifest if their teenage years. As teenagers, they are naturally confused and feel misunderstood by a world that they simply want to share with their “normal” neighbors. Does tomorrow belong to unity; or to division…? I’m Raymond Jenks; this social science study is my life’s work…]

The inspection into the metahuman phenomenon HAD been Dr. Raymond Jenks’s life’s work; and he had never lived to see it completed, or truly appreciated by everyone. Doctor Jenks had dreamed of a UNIFIED world; cancer (ironically, a MUTATED cancer) had taken away his chance to see that dream for humanity reach fruition.

Seventeen-year-old Terrell Jenks had never fully agreed with the intensity of his father’s studies. However, he didn’t disagree with his father’s desires either. Now, his inheritance was his father's life's work in inexperienced hands...

With almost mechanical motions, Terrell put his hand to an electronic lock that had once only responded to his father’s handprint. He was being followed closely by Professor Simon Vann, his late father’s lab assistant. Terrell still didn’t know how to really feel about Professor Vann’s sudden interest in him with the passing of his father; it didn’t hurt to have someone along who knew the layout of the lab; IF it would open for them.

Soon, there came the sound of locks turning over, followed by a displaced, effeminate voice:

“Inheritance Contingency Plan activated; welcome Terrell Raymond Jenks; and I was so sorry to hear of your father’s untimely passing.”

“Thanks.” Terrell clipped back at a displaced computerized voice as the doors to the laboratory opened wide to let him in. Professor Vann followed closely behind him.

“Right; because I only lost my mentor.” He grumbled.

“Forget the electronic lock.” Terrell replied, curtly. “You remember where my father’s research computer is; we’re here to collect the data and beat feet. It’s not as though this lab was ever MY favorite place either.”

“Of course, young genius.” Professor Vann replied more graciously than before, even going so far as to handle Terrell by the shoulders. “I…had spoken out of turn before. You had lost your father when I had merely lost a mentor.”

“It’s been forgotten; you were talking to a machine at the time.” Terrell answered, moving to pull out of Simon’s reach. “Is that the computer over there?”

Simon glanced over at the computer; and the data disk lying beside it with the names and data profiles on known Metahumans. Finally; it could be HIS! Why, young Jenks wasn’t even INTERESTED in his late father’s work!

“Why, yes, it is!” Simon replied, reaching for a hidden pocket and removing a laser pistol. He then shoved Jenks once more so that the insolent youth would turn around.

“Hey, what in the…?” Terrell began before he faced the barrel of the pistol.

“Hand over the data disk, Terry; now.” Professor Simon Vann ordered. “Then a useless computer can be your inheritance; God rest your father’s irritating soul.”

“Professor!” Terrell managed. “Why?”

“Destiny!” Professor Vann spat back. “You don’t even want your father’s legacy; and access to a Metahuman military arm interests me greatly.”

Terrell glanced to the ground.

“I…It’s not a lack of desire on my part.” Terrell answered, finally glancing up to meet the professor in the very eyes that used to intimidate him in the way that they ogled him. “I do not believe myself worthy of carrying on my father’s dreams for society; and accessing a Metahuman personal army was never his dream either!”

“So maybe I’ll just pursue my own.” Professor Vann answered, shrugging.

With that, and without warning, he did pull the trigger…!

Simon Vann was a scientist; not a sharpshooter. He had missed a scared, shocked, and confused young boy at point-blank range; and struck the computer instead. The resulting explosion had activated the lab’s contingency security; it was a miracle that it didn’t raise the police. The explosion, however, did finish the job of ending Terrell Jenks’s life. The back blast of Simon Vann’s own misfire also tossed the treacherous, scheming scientist backwards and into a heap in his own lab coat…

An hour later, Simon Vann woke up once again. He climbed slowly back to his feet in the wrecked lab and could see part of his reflection in the (now damaged) monitor screen. His skin, his once beautiful skin, now radiated almost a goldenrod color on his “flesh” side while the other half of his face was a metal exoskeleton of its former self. Professor Simon Vann saw his disfigurement and raised an iron fist to finish smashing the monitor in frustration.

“My face; my beautiful face!” Simon wheezed; then, taking in the deceased and burned form of Terrell Jenks. “This was your fault, boy; we could have made great partners; I could have directed you to greatness, and now…”

Suddenly, Professor Vann stopped his rant. His face was ruined; his brain seemed to be…ticking; gathering data at an alarming rate.

There was a girl living with a power to control energy and struggling with how to use that power against a society that rejected her. There was a young man who had grown at least a foot and a half overnight and developed musculature that clearly identified him as a Metahuman and left him to be sneered at as unsightly. Others were adults whom had long since recognized their Metahuman traits and had been ostracized and cast out. Simon Vann, now half man and half machine, knew of each of their names, abilities, and addresses. He could have his army; and he owed it to Dr. Raymond Jenks and to his son, Terrell.

“Thank you, boy.” Simon sneered, tearing the data disk in his bare hands. “I may build my army; and any Metahuman that I see as unfit won’t even know about it now!”

Simon then turned his newly mechanical brain to the process of releasing the lab from lockdown mode so that he could leave and gather his army unscathed.

=================================

The explosion; it should have killed Terrell Jenks! Instead, he could feel himself looking down on the world, as if he were standing upright. Simon Vann was long gone. The data disk was destroyed; the computer was no more. Terrell’s burnt and scarred body was…

Terrell unleashed a gasp as he glanced down at his deceased form from a standing position. His “standing” body seemed to pulse and glow radioactively. He experimentally reached out with a hand and it passed right through the damaged monitor.

“I-I’m a hologram of some kind; an A.I.!” Terrell reflected aloud. “How is this…?”

Suddenly, Terrell Jenks gave pause. He became uniquely aware of the problems of others…

Maureen Tosh was rejected as an outcast in her school hallway. Vance Harper struggled to talk to his parents. Rex Nash lumbered through the streets alone; he wanted to talk to his brother about this but his brother was gone. Sarah Myles sat alone in her room, deep in thought. Their struggles all had the same source; they had woken up overnight to find that they were Metahumans in a world that wasn’t ready to accept them. Other, older Metahumans had given up on society long ago and turned against it, understandably embittered. The adult Metahumans needed reeducated in the behavior of a polite society; and it could have been a young and confused Metahuman citizenry that could guide them…

Terrell experimentally shut his eyes and reached out with his mind.

“Vance Harper, Sarah Myles, Rex Nash, Maureen Tosh; do not be alarmed, any of you. Though the four of you feel alone, scared, and misunderstood now, none of you are alone. You each have special gifts; the world needs your unique talents and young lonely teenagers like yourselves need family. The world right now needs…Teen Justice…”

The electronically telepathic message was complete with an address to meet. “T.J., The Living A.I.” could only send the signal out; responding to it was up to the teenaged Metahumans. He only hoped that they would come of their own accords; before bitterness at the world around them could guide their hands…