<div align="center"><strong>Niagra, Canada<br/>Hegemony LTD</strong></div><br/>No one quite understood why it happened. It was still seen as a fairly rare phenomenon. A child born with abilities no normal human should have. There seemed to be no correlation between the whether one or both parents had any type of ability or not for their child to potentially be born with them. They didn't typically manifest at birth, often developing with motor skills. Some however developed with their learning skills. No one could predict if or when a child would begin to explore their abilities, but one thing was for certain, many saw those children as valuable. Most wanted to exploit those abilities. The perfect soldiers, renewable energy, control over others. You name it and there was a way to manipulate it. Those children were often thought of to be protected at all cost. It was what made employment with Hegemony such a godsend for families when their children began to show signs of developing their own abilities. Their pay might be a bit lower, but the protected housing in the employee apartments was far safer than just living in the suburbs and fending for one's self.<br/><br/>In recent years schools for those born with these abilities had begun to open. Most viewed them as a positive as it allowed the students to learn not only their basic education, but also how to harness and control their abilities. The down side? Because of how new they were the tuition was incredibly expensive. Lower income families would struggle to get their child into these schools if they even lived close enough to send them to one. The hurdles these families faced never seemed to get any easier either. Even childcare was difficult to find once the children started to discover their abilities. Those early years were some of the most dangerous ones. Hegemony had been working on things to help, but the rate of innovation simply wasn't fast enough for most. At the very least they'd discovered ways to dampen the abilities of some of the world's worst offenders and prevent them from hurting others while they endured prison sentences.<br/><br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>"What do you mean the babysitter cancelled? It was just a little zap. Lynde didn't mean anything by it... No, no. This isn't good. We both need to get to work." A tall, blonde haired man sighed. Of all days to lose their babysitter. No one could leave a five year old child in an apartment alone all day. She can't even reach the sink without a step stool! Calling off was hardly an option. What would he tell his boss? "I can't come in. The babysitter cancelled and my kid can't stay home alone." Yeah, that would go over well. The worst part was it was too late for either parent to call off. They'd never find a substitute teacher in time for the mother and security could not be compromised on a day like today, not with the big investor meeting he'd been hearing about for weeks. They needed him to prevent attacks on the ridiculously rich people coming to be wooed by the CEO himself in hopes of more funding.<br/><br/>"Jurgen... Maybe your office...? It's just one day and it'll be nap time by the time they get there. She could be alone for a nap." A dark haired woman said as she placed a bowl of cereal in front of a young blonde girl sitting in a chair at the table.<br/><br/>"But what if she wakes up and I'm not there? You've seen what she did to the lamp just last week. I've never seen something get so bright... then so dark so fast Karin. What if she does it again there? We can't afford to pay for damaged equipment. I don't even know how she does it." Jurgen sighed. What in the world were they going to do? There was no good choice here. Their child couldn't be left alone. She was too young and too dangerous not to be supervised and yet they had no one to supervise her. "I... I'll take her with me. I'll have to be the own to watch the cameras and send someone out to deal with problems. I just hope there won't be any." He finally relented. What other choice was there?<br/><br/>Karin sighed as she gathered up the old diaper bag they had been using for Lynde. The young girl was past the point of diapers so now it had more or less been converted into a "keep the child busy bag" with a coloring book, crayons, snacks and other comforts to get her through the day. It wasn't easy to keep a young kid entertained in a boring security office all day and with her abilities starting to come through there was no doubt her getting bored could lead to catastrophe. Jurgen knew that his boss trusted him, but to trust him this much? The man would have to be crazy. Still, the clock was ticking and both parents had to head to work soon.<br/><br/>"Try giving her this when you get there. Maybe it'll keep her focusing her abilities in the right place?" Karin said, tossing a ball to her husband before tossing on her coat. The battery panel was still open with an obvious lack of batteries meant to power the lights on the surface. The goal was clear. If she could figure out she could power the lights herself maybe it would keep her busy and focus all that electricity to one area instead. "Stay safe. I love you." She said, giving her worried husband a kiss before heading to the door. Lynde by this point had just been finishing off her cereal and they couldn't afford much time to stall. Lifting her out of her booster seat the man gathered up the rest of his own gear for the day, mainly his security badge and issued weapons.<br/><br/>"Now sweetie we need to be on our best behavior today alright?" He reminded her while they walked through the halls from the employee apartments to his office. It wasn't big but it would do for what work needed done here. A large oak desk sat in the middle of the room, two monitors on the right side showing security camera feeds with a large window to his back, filing cabinet and fake plants on the wall to the right. Two comfortable looking chairs sat in front of his desk though there were no visitors to sit in them today so for now they would be holding the diaper bag of kid supplies. Settling in at his computer Jurgen clocked in then looked at Lynde, hesitating a bit before handing her the ball. "Mommy wanted you to try a new toy. What do you think?" He asked as he gave the curious little girl the ball lacking the batteries.<br/><br/>Lynde took in and stared at the thing for a minute. It didn't move. It currently didn't light up or make any sound. What use was it? She frowned. This wasn't some fun new toy. The disappointment sparked in her for a minute before the spark itself transferred into the ball, a light near her fingers lighting up and catching her eye. It was that discovery that made her more curious about the toy. She tried again but found that it was harder than she thought to do it. That annoyed her and once again letting that emotion manifest she found the toy cooperating with her desires more and more. That sparked joy in her, and quite a few more sparks. She was beginning to get the toy to light up in different ways now, that electrical charge building up in more than just the ball. Lynde's hair began to stand on end looking like she'd just rubbed a balloon on her head, the sight of which making her father chuckle lightly, taking a picture on his phone. Just after the camera app clicked there was a knock at his door before it opened with hardly a chance to actually acknowledge the knock.<br/><br/>"Mr. Schröder. I need you to do something for me..." The booming voice of the company's CEO Mr. Marquis filled the room as the man strolled in to see the young girl sitting on the floor with the light ball without batteries lighting up and seeming to have a good time with it. "Well, I was ah... not aware it was bring your child to work day." He stated, his eyes darting from the child to her father.<br/><br/>"I... I can explain. We just lost our babysitter and she can't stay home alone. We didn't have any time to make arrangements." He said with a wince, knowing that it seemed far too far fetched to believed.<br/><br/>"And... the lights?" Mr. Marquis responded.<br/><br/>"I... I have no explanation for that. My wife gave it to her." He answered sheepishly.<br/><br/>"Alright... Well... I need you to do something. I need someone to keep an eye on Callahan. Perhaps they can entertain each other?" He stated, opening the door a bit further to reveal a similarly aged young boy. Lynde was curious of the newcomer, putting down her toy and getting up as he approached. She didn't say a thing at first, merely poking him in the nose. In that instant electricity did what it did best, arcing from an area of high concentration to low concentration, in this case from her finger to his nose. There was a flash of light as it happened and in that moment it was like the two had swapped completely. Her hair had tamed back down while one could say his now stood on end.<br/><br/>Watching the display Jurgen sat in shock. All he could do was wish the little boy was ok, especially as Lynde began to giggle.