JJ’s legs pounded against the treadmill, sweat dripping down his back as he kept running. He was in the zone, not thinking about anything except his breathing. The black jumpsuit he was wearing, made of an odd material JJ didn’t know the origin of, seemed to be helping keep him cool, but he’d been running for what, to him, felt like half an hour, but to everyone else wasn’t even a minute. That was what happened when he ran, he ran so fast that time slowed down around him. Dr Stevens had said it was something to do with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, but as soon as he’d said that JJ had tuned out. He wasn’t particularly fussed about why his abilities worked the way they did, he just wanted to be able to stop using them from time to time, to be able to control it. And that was what these people were helping him to do.

The timer on the wall in front of JJ counted to a minute, and JJ started slowing down. He remembered the first time he’d used the treadmill - or whatever technical name Dr Stevens had called it - a couple of days ago. He’d stopped running and shot backwards as the treadmill kept moving, crashing into the wall and almost breaking his arm.

As he came back into normal time, he heard someone talking to him.

“Very impressive, JJ. How is the suit holding up?” It was Dr Stevens. His white lab coat trailed in the air behind him as he walked towards JJ, the air currents the boy had made still swirling around the room and making Dr Stevens’ brown hair blow . He pulled the pen out from behind his ear and lifted the sleeve of JJ’s jumpsuit off of his arm.

“It kept me cool. Measurements are good too, it wasn’t rubbing or anything. I’ve had that sometimes with jeans or tracksuits, they-”

“Good.” Dr Stevens said, cutting off JJ mid-babble. He jotted down some notes on the clipboard he was holding, leaving JJ standing there in awkward silence.

He looked up, realising the boy was standing there sweating profusely, and sighed. He pointed back over his shoulder, into the observation room behind him. “There’s a bottle of water in there. Go have a drink, you look like you need it.”

Before he’d even finished his sentence, JJ had ran off to get the water, sending Dr Stevens’ lab coat flying up again.

“Joseph!” shouted a voice from the door to the observation room, a deep gravelly voice that made Dr Steven’s face drop when he heard it.

“Fantastic,” muttered Dr Stevens underneath his breath. “Yes, Major Davis?” he called back.

“Are you finished with the boy?”

Dr Stevens turned to see his colleague walk in. Dr Stevens wasn’t a small man, standing dead at 5ft10, but Major Davis towered over him. The man was apparently 6ft8, though it felt like he was much larger than that. While Major Davis’ height was certainly a contributing factor to how small he made Dr Stevens feel, it certainly didn’t help that the man was also built like a tank, his XXL shirt appearing quite tight on him beneath the army jacket that he still insisted on wearing, despite the fact that he had been dishonourably discharged from service 4 years ago. He also still sported the stereotypical army buzzcut, his brown hair greying at the edges, and the look in his eyes that accompanied the thudding of his combat boots on the floor was enough to at the very least intimidate anyone he came across, if not send them scurrying for cover.

"Why? What do you need him for, William?"

"That’s Major Davis to you, Joseph. And I’ll have you know, he’s on assignment tomorrow. The details of it haven’t been sent through yet, but I’m almost certain he’s going to be needed for it."

"Your point being, Major?" Dr Stevens asked, the venom in the last word obvious. The tension between the two men gave JJ shivers.

"So, he needs to be in his room and asleep by 2000 hours. Meaning he has half an hour to eat dinner."

Dr Stevens went to say something, but Major Davis cut him off, continuing talking in his demanding way.

"He may be able to move incredibly fast, but that is beside the point. He still needs to prepare himself for tomorrow."

Major Davis turned to JJ, the boy standing up straighter to show he wasn’t intimidated by him. He was, of course, but he didn’t want it to show.

"Get to the dining hall, now." Major Davis ordered. "In your room by 2000 hours."

With that, JJ ran off through the facility, towards the dining hall, leaving the two men behind to discuss... Something. He didn’t particularly care what it was they were talking about. After all, JJ was starving, as anyone would be after a solid half hour of running.

His feet pounded on the cold grey concrete floor of the facility, the wind currents he caused rushing behind him as he ran. He blew through the corridors within what appeared to be mere seconds to outsiders, but to him was only a minute or two. JJ sighed as he ran; he’d be glad to get back to his room. Almost everything in here was varying shades of grey, all hard and unforgiving. From the empty concrete floor and walls to the guards posted everywhere that never cracked a smile, everything JJ encountered in this complex seemed harsh and uninviting.

There was something he noticed that was out of place, however. JJ slowed down to normal speed, leaning in to look at it. It appeared to be a statue of a boy, standing against the wall, in a vaguely heroic pose.

As JJ leaned in, examining this out of place statue, he muttered to himself. “Is that…”

“BOO!” shouted the statue before JJ could finish his thought. The boy leapt backwards, clumsily tripping over his own feet and falling to the floor in surprise. At that, the statue burst into laughter.

From the floor, JJ glared at the stone boy doubled over in laughter. “Come on, Nat, that’s like the third time you’ve pulled that trick. It’s getting old,”

“I can’t believe you fell for it again!” the statue called Nat wheezed. “You’ve fallen for that three times!”

“Yeah, I know.” huffed JJ. But he couldn’t help cracking a smile despite his annoyance - Nat’s laughter was just too infectious. “How long have you been waiting there for?”

“Like 10 minutes. It was totally worth it.” Nat held out his hand to help JJ up. As JJ grabbed his friend’s hand, it started turning from stone back into flesh and blood. The colour sped up the boy’s arm and across his body like a virus, and within seconds he was human again. His messy brown hair was sticking up in every direction, making it look like he’d just been electrocuted, or perhaps dragged through a hedge. His sea-green eyes sparkled with mischief, a look that was reflected in his smile as he laughed.

“You know they stop serving dinner in like 10 minutes, right?”

“Well then you’d better go get some.” Nat pointed out. “I finished mine off half an hour ago.” He rolled his eyes at JJ’s quizzical look. “I’m coming back, I need to go talk to Dr S.”

With that, JJ disappeared off towards the dining hall, leaving Nat standing in the corridor on his own.

“I swear,” he muttered to himself as he walked off in the direction JJ had arrived from, “if he ever stops moving, it’ll be a miracle.”

"Hey, Roadrunner!" JJ heard, as he entered the dining hall and slowed down to normal speed. He smiled - at least one other person he liked was still having dinner.

Looking over at the source of the shout, JJ saw all 3 of the other teenagers he’d met sitting at a table together. It looked like they’d just sat down.

One of them, a spanish girl with olive skin and brown hair tied back in a ponytail, had her hand raised. She, Jenny, had been the one to call JJ, which made sense. Out of the 5 teenagers at the facility, Jenny was the only one (other than Nat and JJ, of course) who seemed to enjoy talking to other people.

Cameron, the black boy who sat next to her, didn’t exactly mind other people, but JJ knew from sharing a room with him (only for a month or two) that he much preferred his own company, rather than the company of others. A book floated in front of his face, hovering there in midair and turning its pages on its own as Cameron used both of his hands to eat. The boy was a telekinetic and an avid bookworm, reading whenever he got a chance - like now.

Lucy, a small girl who looked about 15 but apparently was only 13, would never have called JJ over. She wasn’t an introvert, like Cameron was. Lucy just didn’t like people, at all. It wasn’t that she liked being on her own, she just didn’t like being around anyone else. She definitely wouldn’t have called JJ. But nonetheless, she had slid over (presumably at Jenny and Cameron’s request) to allow a space next to her for JJ to sit.

JJ slipped down into the empty seat.

“So, what have you guys been up to today?” he asked as he shovelled food into his mouth.

“Mostly just training, really,” answered Jenny. “Lucy did a bit of one-on-one, but Cam and I mostly just did physical training.”

“Speaking of which…” Lucy waved her fork at JJ’s sweaty red face.

“Oh yeah. So according to Dr Stevens, when I speed up, I go so fast everyone else slows down. Apparently I was only running for a minute, but it felt like I was running for half an hour. That’s why I’m exhausted. You would be too, if you ran for half an hour solid!”

“No we wouldn’t.” Cameron pointed out, not looking up from his book. “We’ve been training for weeks more than you. You’ve been here, what, 2 or 3 weeks? We’ve been here, training, for that many months.”

“Well, not everyone.” Lucy finally contributed to the conversation. “I’ve been here for a week. A single week,” she took another bite of her food, and then continued. “but yeah, Roadrunner, you’re still a wimp,”

JJ elbowed Lucy playfully. She grimaced and wiped her sleeve where it had just made contact with him.

“Haha, very funny. You want a race?”

“Sure,” answered Cameron, despite the fact that JJ had addressed the question to Lucy.

A mischievous smile started to spread across JJ’s face as he considered Cameron’s proposal.

"Really, Cam? You think you can run faster than me?"

"I never said run..."

"Then what were you thinking?"

"Well... I can fly,"

Jenny butted in before the conversation got out of hand.

"I think maybe we should leave the alpha male fights to pack animals. Before someone gets hurt,"

"I could take anything he could throw at me!" JJ complained.

"No you couldn’t," muttered Cameron, just loud enough to be heard.

"JJ, you’re 16, act like it. Cam, you may be 14-"

"What does that mean?" Cameron interrupted.

Jenny ignored him. "but you should at the very least know how stupid and unnecessary that idea is!"

"Yeah, listen to mum," Lucy muttered scathingly beneath her breath. The others pretended not to hear it.

There was a moment of silence, until Jenny spoke again. "Besides, you know I’d beat both of you."

The boys laughed.

"No way!" cried JJ.

"How would you know? How would you see me to tell?" Jenny pointed out.

The boys didn’t have an answer for that. Lucy on the other hand snickered quietly into her food.

“Lucy, what did you do in training today?” JJ asked, sounding interested as he turned to face the brown-haired girl sitting next to him.

She shrugged in reply, not making eye contact as she spoke. “Not much. It wasn’t that interesting,”

“No, I bet it was. What kind of things did they have you doing?” JJ pressed.

“They were trying to get me to go into other people’s minds, rather than just reading them. Just trying to, like, speak into their heads."

"That’s not nothing, that’s really cool!"

Cameron rolled his eyes at JJ’s enthusiasm. "Everything we do here is cool. I can move things with my mind, Jenny can become completely invisible, and you can move faster than the speed of sound. ’Cool’ doesn’t cover it, Roadrunner,"

As JJ was about to reply, Jenny interrupted.

"Speaking of which," she signalled to Major Davis, who had just entered the canteen and appeared to be making a beeline towards their table, "someone’s on assignment tomorrow,"

JJ groaned, all thoughts of what he was going to say forgotten as he was reminded of his upcoming task.

"Yeah, I’m on that," he said, not even bothering to mask the disappointment in his voice.

"An assignment has come through for tomorrow," Major Davis announced as he approached the table, "White, Goodward, you’re required for it, you’ll be collected at 0600 hours. Conrad, Lecter, training as usual. Dr Stevens will collect you at 0700 for breakfast."

Major Davis didn’t hang around, striding off across the canteen as soon as he’d addressed the children.

Jenny sighed. "You know, it’s almost like he doesn’t like us."

"Really? How did you guess?" The sarcasm in JJ’s voice causing Cameron to chuckle, breaking the awkward tension that had arisen.

"I wonder what you’ll be doing..." Cameron said. "Speed and invisibility aren’t a common pair. I’d guess something to do with stealth?"

"It’s a breaking and entering mission." Declared Lucy, her eyes closed, with one hand on her temple and a furrowed look of concentration on her face. "That’s all I can get. Something about theft? Stealing something, I’m not sure what."

Frowning, Jenny voiced a concern. "That’s not exactly legal, is it?"

JJ shrugged in reply, his mouth half full of food. "Could be something someone else stole and we’re just reclaiming it."

“Or you could be assassins who are being sent in to kill a target,” added Nat, as he approached the table.

“You heard that?” JJ enquired.

Nat nodded as he sat down, hugging his girlfriend Jenny as he did so. “I came back at just the right time. Heard what Davis said, didn’t have to talk to him.”

“You know what he calls us?” Lucy asked bitterly, then continuing before anyone could reply. “Freaks. He can barely stand to be around us.”

“Yeah, well, the feeling’s mutual.” JJ said as he shovelled another portion of food into his mouth.

Jenny sighed. “Can we talk about something less depressing?”

“Like what, the football?”

JJ, Nat and Lucy chuckled at Cameron’s quick-witted comment.

“Well, ok then. What’s the one food you guys miss from home?” Jenny gestured to her plate, loaded with chilli con carne - one of the three only meals that was available at the facility in which they were staying.

“Liquorice.” Lucy spoke without hesitation. There was a pause, as everyone waited for Lucy to elaborate, but she didn’t.

“I really miss bacon. I’d probably kill someone for bacon it’s been that long.”

Nat nodded. “Totally, JJ. What I wouldn’t give for a full english right now…”

Jenny smacked Nat on the shoulder playfully. “You don’t need to eat, moron!”

“How dare you?” Nat said, a look of mock horror on his face. “I only don’t eat when I’m a statue!”

“You’re not a statue, you just turn to stone.” Lucy groaned, her head in her hand.

“Hey, I-”

“I really miss Sunday roast.” said Cameron, before the argument could go any further. “My mum did a fantastic Sunday roast, and her potatoes were something else. I really miss a roast, chicken, gravy, Yorkshire puddings, the lot.”

The whole table sighed.

“Mmm. I’d love a Sunday roast.” drooled JJ.

“You just ate two whole helpings of curry.” Cameron pointed out, as he went back to his book.

“Well, from what Major Davis said, I’m going to need it.”