Step 5.3 - Reeve's Story

As usual, go to Step 5.1 for more information.

Reeves' Story

I moved up fairly quickly through the ranks of the Army - I had a good head on my shoulders, a knack for leadership without undermining the authority of whoever actually was in charge, and most importantly, I was ambitious. I knew what I wanted, and I knew the perfect combination of kissing and kicking ass to get it.

And so it was my desk that the assignment of Gary Gray was thrown on. It was a bit of a bizarre assignment from the get-go; we'd heard reports of strange abilities in civilians before, and checked each one out - rules each one out as a hoax - as a matter of course, but I didn't know of any reports interesting enough to start out this high up the food chain.

What was more, it had a police report of a bus's gas tank exploding - twelve casualties, another two dozen injured, hardly a disaster worthy of the Army - and two sheets of paper, hardly the dozen-or-two page report that was normally handed to me.

One page was a seemingly fifth-hand account of some kid's insistence the bus explosion was his brother's fault; the other was blank save for a YouTube URL and a post-it - 'look into it'. The YouTube clip was impressive graphically, but it was odd for me to be given this chore.

After reading the kid's testimony to try and figure out what had prompted the strange assignation, I begrudgingly assigned some agents to watch this kid, Gary Gray, and report back any unusual behavior, instead of them being the ones doing the assignment of duties.

Now, one fifth-hand account from some kid barely old enough to vote, I can, have, and will ignore; four trusted men describing the powerful arcs of lightning were harder to ignore. The five of us talked it - him - over, and I discussed our decision - to recruit Gray as a 'supersoldier' - with my superiors, who agreed that a power level that high was a threat - either to us, or to anyone against us.

I took one of the men, Mjr Gen Anderson, with me to the Gray residence, and set up detailed surveillance - video and audio - of the more common areas of the Gray house. We talked very frankly to Gary, telling him that we knew what he'd done, why he did it, that he didn't mean it, and other mostly psycho-babble bullshit that neither of us really expected to calm him much; thankfully, it did, and he visibly relaxed; he was even crying a bit when he asked what we were going to do with him.

Telling him our 'job offer' didn't seem to have quite the calming effect we had hoped for and anticipated - quite the opposite, in fact; he became visibly unnerved and angry, lifted an arm - and though he would later say he did it without thinking, he had a very determined expression on his face when he attacked and killed Mjr Gen Anderson.

I decided to take that as a sign that our informal meeting, such as it was, was over; not wanting to anger him further - the he seemed in shock, seeing what he'd done - I picked up Anderson's still-smoking corpse for a later autopsy without a word; the only noise I made as I exited the household was to warn his younger brother - who had been eavesdropping - to be careful around him.

I returned the next day, wearing a rubber wetsuit under my uniform, for a slight bit of protection - the kid was powerful, there was no doubt of that - and passed on the ultimatum given him by my superiors: Gary Gray had one week to accept the job offer - now with the added bonus of a murder charge being erased. I saluted him, knowing that he would ultimately decide to take the hard way out but hoping that he would show the remarkable intelligence that his file indicated he possessed.

Two or three days passed, and I was able to catch the younger brother while he was running an errand for Gary. I asked him aside, noting the materials he had been sent to fetch, and was pleasantly surprised when he was remarkably easily brought to our side in the matter; he guessed - easily and accurately - what it was we would want, and I decided to recruit him, though I didn't tell him then - a black belt with a head on his shoulders would be a perfect addition to our team when all of this was over.

"All this" ended remarkably quickly; I was waiting for it so that I could back up the younger brother, if necessary; it wasn't, thank God, but had it been, I don't think that I would have been there in time; I don't like to ponder that possible outcome.

My main assignment, the recruitment and/or containment of extraordinary individuals, while legally created for one specific group of soldiers - the 'supersoldiers' to which I had offered Gary entrance - seemed, after this incident, perhaps not entirely so isolated, and our ranks were thin; I am quite thankful that the younger brother - that Jesse, Agent Gray - accepted the position.

Okay, again - who's the good guy, who's the bad guy, after reading all three major characters' points of view?