Welcome

12th August 2012

The USB drive with all SCIU related software on it he had given Henry and Helen months ago lay open on his desktop in front of him. After Nikola had gotten his own individual working space in this New Sanctuary, he set about using it well. He didn’t really mind it being underground, his ancestry built catacombs underneath famous cities to live. He had even lived underground for a period of sixty years maybe more, partly in hiding because his death had been faked so his work could continue, or at least that was the excuse Helen had given him, but she knew all too well that Nikola Tesla was an hard act to follow and partly because he was seeking knowledge of his race so he could revive them, fat lot of good that turned out to be.

One particular file stood out to him the most as he learnt a lot about what his so called department in the government did, relatively behind his back and sometime in front of his own very eyes. Case file number thirty three described a young abnormal girl being present when her parents were killed by SCIU officials, but the slime balls of the department had blamed the girl and her uncontrollable ability and powers to cover up and save their own skins. He shook his head in slight disgust and pushed himself up from and away his desk. He poured just a drop of wine into the glass that sat next to the computer and picked it up. He also picked the folder up with written work on the girl, which he managed to get his hands on without going through the proper channels. He’d have to come up with an explanation if Helen turned up protesting why he hadn’t gone to her first.

He would have to remind her that he didn’t need babysitting and that this wasn’t hidden agenda Nikola talking, he was just curious that all. He remembered going to the family home that night to check the evidence but something just didn’t add up and he wasn’t no Sherlock Holmes, pardon the pun… He was surprised to see that Helen had wrote that the girl was now in her care after finding her way down to the Sanctuary with a group of abnormals that were the first to be transported into the new home. It also stated that Helen made a couple of visits to her in a week. In between reading the file he drank little sips of wine. He closed the folder shut and tossed it with a heavy thump landing on his desk. He put his glass down and grabbed his white lab coat, placing it around his shoulders and walking out his lab, leaving any equipment he had been working on, running on standby.

Nikola had made himself at home pretty easy, finding his way round without getting lost. You could blame his photographic memory he possess, helping him to memorize the buildings from scratch ever since his grand tour of the place. He left the building and headed down to the main area where the residents lived. The beauty of such a place like this is that the abnormals had what they always dreamed about - their freedom. It sadden him that his race couldn’t see the progress made, but then again his attempts on bringing them back turned out a completely bust, especially the last lot, who thought they were French Canadian rock n rollers and had no concepts on what a vampire should be. In the file he had read on the abnormal girl told him that he would find her on the ground floor in the residential district, near a place similar to The SHU, but a place where she could be controlled and wouldn't be scared or worse, hurt someone.

The district was a vast majority of the Sanctuary housing huge apartment building where the citizens live and if you didn’t know exactly where you were going you could easy get lost. All building surrounding this area were customized and comfortable environment to the race living on that particular floor. He had approached the living quarters and department of the girl and pushed open the door. He didn’t take into account her ability but he knew that electricity had a somewhat domain over fire. Based and taken from an observation he made some two hundred year where electricity was used to change the shape of flame. Previous experiments involved Direct Current, but other teams used oscillating Alternating Current voltage, and found that the effects were "completely different". The electrical field charges the carbon particles (or soot) generated by the fire, creating an organised "flow" of charged particles inside the flame that literally pushes the flame away from the source, putting it out. Essentially, the electrical field separates the region that's hot and burning from the unburnt souce, so that the souce will not continue to burn. Though he was never actually stupid enough to test that theory out on himself.

“Hannah Jordan right?” He asked, not meaning to come across completely rude but he may have sounded a bit harshly by mistake. “I’m Nikola Tesla, I'm taking over from Helen Magnus’s visit today…” he lied, but a little white lie didn’t hurt much, she could probably tell he was lying by reading his mind, which he hoped she didn’t do because Nikola hated his mind being tampered with. Besides all his latest invention blueprints were stored safely in his mind so it was a particular guarded place right now. He didn’t want to actually tell her that he had visited her parents house sometime after her parents had died, maybe she would recognize him instead.

Hannah had arrived at the Sanctuary with the dreams of finally being free, it is what her parents would have wanted ultimately and she knew that the best she could do was live and be free like they wanted to continue being if it wasnt for those freaking SCIU members, they had killed them because of reasons that were their own and only their own and that killed her a bit inside, they wanted her thats what she thought because he was a Pyrokenetic and a Telekenetic. The product of two abnormals with those two abilities and so much more. Hannah was to say the least very headstrong, but she was very sweet and trusted everyone, maybe that was her downfall.

Hearing the mans voice she looked up from her containment, she squinted a bit and rubbed her eyes, she had been sleeping, the nine year old was tired and did need naps every now and then. She made a face and restrained herself from setting another male on fire, she got scared easily now that she saw her parents killed, but she was getting better. Hearing what he said she raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Your lying" She glared.

"Liars go to hell" She huffed and looked away for the moment she was hell bent on proving that he was lying.
"Nikola Tesla as in science guy; as in electrical current Nikola Tesla?" She asked slightly intrigued by this, but she would never show it; or maybe she would eventually.

Nikola was a little taken aback to say the least at the little girls outburst about him being a liar. Well it was true, he just didn’t expect it to come in the conversation at such an early stage. Better late then never, he supposed, she was bound to find out anyways. It didn’t mention in her file that she was very outspoken, maybe Nikola had bitten of more then he could chew, for once. He liked a challenge though and this was no different. “You are right” he said “I was lying, I’m not here in replace of Helen Magnus’s visit” he admitted with a slight raised eyebrow “…And that’s something I don’t admit everyday, sshh don’t tell anyone!” he mused for a few minutes. Oh what the hell! He tossed the file containing the girls details on the table in front of him hoping she wouldn’t set fire to them, that would be in Helen’s bad books for quite sometime, pardon the pun! He was sure whatever was in files around The Sanctuary there was an equal back up file for everything in Helen’s new cloud. Ironic really, considering they were underground.

“Correct!” Nikola said with admiration and tugged at his white lab coat, when the girl made her statement about him. To be fair he was pretty impressed, he wouldn’t expect someone so young to know who he was, but then again he liked to think that he influenced people all ages and never took into consideration that she could have easily read his mind. “The one and only, don’t you recognize me?” he asked with a hint of curiosity. Of course he had one of those faces that people remembered for all kinds of reason, some good, some bad and some, well we just won’t go there. That and he was all over the World Wide Web, nobody could deny his existence and why would anybody want to? He hoped she’d recognize him from that night with her parents, he had blundered in after the whole events had happened and he knew she had still been in the property when he had arrived, simply because the sofa had set ablaze. He opened that particular memory up in his mind for her to find and thought maybe she would read it so she would remember. It didn’t even occur to him that she probably didn’t want to relive or talk about that night, but that was Tesla all over. He didn’t exactly engage brain before mouth or even his actions.

Hannah was curious, far more then she should be. The Nine Year old cocked her head feeling heat go to her cheeks in a rage that was completely her own. What did he want with her?, Was he going to hurt her, experiment on her or...make sure she was some cadiver, she wasnt stupid she knew some things that other people her age did not. She was very; very cautious, afraid even of this guy. Hannah did not want to end up like her parents and that could very well happen if she trusted the wrong people. Was Nikola the Wrong Person to trust? Hannah was not sure, so she kept her distance. "Why Lie?, why not tell the truth, like a good adult" She squinted her eyes in attempt to raise her own eyebrow. It was not working very well either, her mother used to raise her eyebrow alot, until she died.

"My teacher said you made electricity, we were just learning when my parents died" She pouted a bit and looked at him then looked at the file and slowly got up off the bed and went to it opening it to read what she could understand. "If you are Nikola Tesla, where is your mustache, and accent" She questioned looking up at the man and cocking her head her long dark locks falling to the side.

“Because that’s what adults do… they lie and because sometimes it’s easier then telling the truth” he answered her question and if Nikola thought he was going to be some kind of important figure in this nine year olds life then he shouldn’t be going around giving that kind of advice for a start. Not a very good impression to imprint on the girl “Only on occasions you get away with it but on others it can lead you into real trouble, so don’t get doing it.” He pointed at her and an attempt to dig himself out of a hole; he thought he did pretty well. He wasn’t here to harm the girl in any way, shape or form, so she didn’t have to be afraid of him, but she wasn’t to know that was she? Besides he knew what it was like to loose a parent at an early age, when his mother died, Tesla became very ill and he wasn’t a fan of his father. Though living for as long as Nikola had and done, he learnt to live with the loses. He held up his left hand so it lined with his shoulder and out front of him. “Yes, vampire in the room would probably count as a childs monster under the bed even for an abnormal, but I come in peace!” he arched an eyebrow, that sounded so cliché. “I’ve always wanted to say that, but that was the awkward moment when it sounded so much better in my head”

He may not be here to replace Helen’s visit but he did come out of interest to check on her. He felt that he was partly responsible for what had happened to her that night, even if he wouldn’t admit it. His department, his officials, his testing facility. Helen was right too, he was finding it hard to live with the distractions – guilt being one of them. Though he used SCIU relatively at the same time as they used him for different reason. He used them for his funding into his own research behind their backs. That’s why he was fired initially, he was found reappropriating government funds, which happens all the time in that line of work, he was just the unlucky one to be caught out, but he was so unappreciated it left an almost visible shudder.

“My accent?” he inquired as he walked over to the bedside and took a seat on the chair next to it, watching the girl as she peeked into her folder. Better not, he thought but didn’t stop her “I’ve learnt a lot of languages, it’s hard to keep up with such trends, same goes for the moustache, it made me depressed when it went out of fashion, so did the cravat!” He answered was a slight pout. “That’s very noble of your teacher” Nikola commented admirably when Hannah said that her teacher told her he created electricity, it was nice to know they taught things like that in this days curriculum. “Electricity has always existed my dear, I didn’t create it, I just studied and tried to perfect ways to use electricity and radio waves and might I add, I was the most successful at it. That’s why scientist before me and after me, who studied similar acts didn’t do so well. I'm one hard act to follow...” That and the fact he didn’t mention that he had the fine art of being able to control/manipulate electricity at will by a touch of his hand which played an awful big part in it too. Like so, he reached out to Hannah’s lamp and with one touch, it burst into life, chasing different colours around the room. He remember that he was most famous for his presentation work. It held danger and excitement at the same time. “People don’t appreciate the sufficient to recognize in me, a discoverer of principles, but at least, they have the justice of calling me an inventor of some beautiful pieces of electrical apparatus” he forgot he was talking to a nine year old for a moment as he babbled on.

Hannah looked curiously over her file not being able to understand half of the words written, she hadnt a clue what temperamental meant, so she just thought it was some nice fuzzy animal or something, maybe she was getting a pony, but then she could only hope. Doctor Magnus was not her mother, why would Doctor Magnus want to raise her, she was simply an orphan. "Maybe adults lie to protect others from the truth?" She stated. All Hannah wanted was her parents back, her mother and father to have them at her side in her time of need.

Why did they have to die?! Why did people have to kill them, they did nothing wrong, they were nice to absolutely everyone. It simply left Hannah to be out of control. "I wont, Mr. Tesla" She stated simply and gave him a genuine smile. "You are not a twilight vampire are you, cause those are nasty, or Dracula, cause he is scary. I do not think you would be that bad of a monster, Mr. Tesla; there is a monster down the way though, real one, a lizard on steroids" She nodded and chuckled.

"I was told that you; Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia, so you would be Serbian, and have an accent, unless you were in america for a lonnnggg time and developed an english one instead of keeping your native tongue" She analyzed stuff to much. When the light turned on and danced in a wave of perfect color she smirked and burst into life, she was not so sad anymore and in one swift move she hugged him and giggled then moved away and looked at all the colors in the room.

“That is a very good point” Nikola said when the nine year old said adults lie to protect the truth. There were all different reasons to lie, Nikola might have gone through them all at some point in his life. She was very wise for her age, he’d be sure to make a note in he folder about it, but then he shook his head. “No not a twilight vampire, or Dracula, those kinds of shows and literature are insulting to the true vampire nature” he said. It did saddens him still, to think people thought that, what he used to call his race were allergic to garlic, that they changed into bats and afraid of holy water. Tesla never understood the holy water reference, yes they were brandished from the churches but who in the world can make the water holy it was beyond him and he should know his father was a priest, the Orthodox kind; chanting and rituals didn’t make any kind of water holy no matter what people believe. “Sanguine Vampiris, were a powerful ancient race, they built catacombs, advanced technology, science, art and architecture” he spoke highly about them, trying revive them was a different matter altogether. He heaved a sigh at the thought and puffed out his cheeks, then he remembered he quite enjoyed being the last of his kind and gave a smile while tilting his head to the side slighty.

He literally had Goosebumps hearing the child talk about his hometown, simply because it had been far too long since Nikola had thought about it himself. He nodded to confirm Hannah was correct about him being Serbian. The town Smiljan where he was born is now known in modern day Croatia, funny how things changed and how many wars were made just to make that decision. Family was a huge subject for Nikola to talk about, it wasn’t so much as his parents as it was his siblings. If he wanted too, he could speak with an accent but why so when he could speak fluent Siberian. He had been amused when he found out that they recently created a museum in his home village to celebrate his 150th birthday. It was more along the lines of a complex, where his birth home together with the Orthodox Church and the surrounding area, represented a memorial. Nice to know people were interested in that kind of thing. He thought about turning up to the opening day, but later thought better of it; as he remembered, he was supposed to be dead and that would have caused all kinds of trouble. Though the statue they put up on the front lawn looked nothing like him.

“I’ve been in America for a very long time” He replied “but if youz vants me to talk with zee accent I shall!” He mused watching the girl as she got up and admired the different coloured lighting in the room. His eyes widened when she hugged him, he patted her back and paused then stood up straightening his lab coat. “Less of that now!” Indeed, if anyone knew Nikola they would say he must be up to something, just because he probably wouldn’t take an interest if it didn’t benefit him in someway. Well what do they know? “You’ll be expecting a visit from Helen Magnus soon; I best leave you to it” he noted, picking up her folder and placing it under his arm. “I’ll be around” he added and continued to walk out, he glanced back to see that Hannah was now following him… He was half tempted to say he was going to see that lizard on steroids but that would be cruel if she thought he was the true monster.

Hannah knew that she had to learn to be more social around people, it was hard to allow herself to fully put out as far as information and emotion, she had been hurt before, her parents killed, she did not know who she was to trust so she resorted to simply setting people on fire, she set anything from hair (in any place) to setting someones clothes on fire. It was a defense mecanism that got her to be put in the SHU for a time out persay, Helen seemed like a nice enough woman to not take any temper tantrums from a nine year old abnormal. It was not easy, but to say the least Hannah felt as if she was the closest to Nikola, he didnt judge her, bully her or belittle her, he allowed her to make fun of him slightly.

When he left she pouted and quietly followed him out running to catch up to him and reaching for his hand, she did not do this often, but she was easily attached to the serbian vampire/inventor. "Nikola, how did you deal with your familys death?" She asked fully putting herself out there, it was unbecoming slightly, because she never trusted this easily and she did not know what was so different now. Maybe because he was so nice to her and did not judge. Hannah breathed in sniffling as tears made themselves on her cheeks as they fell freely from her eyes. It just came to her realization that she simply had no one left.

Nikola puffed out his cheeks slightly when she asked how he dealt with the death of his parents and gave a huge sigh. He didn’t really want to go into this subject, especially with a nine year old. He couldn’t remember if he ever spoke about his parents that much, back then he still loved his work more then anything else in his life, but he found himself answering her question. “I lost my older brother first… Dane his name was, he had an accident, while horse riding” he didn’t mention that some accounts claimed that Nikola had caused the accident by frightening the horse. “I lost my father when I was twenty three, he contracted an unspecified illness… ” His head dropped and his eyes scanned the floor as if he didn’t want to continue. “I didn’t take it very well” He admitted and remembered that he broke all connections with his family and dropped out of a third year at the university he was attending at the time, just to deal with it on his own.

Though the real nightmare began when he lost his mother. He would always remember that, because he moved away, he had no way of knowing his mother was ill. He started having significant dreams and vision about her, thats why Nikola would admit when he dreamed they were important. It later turned out his dream came true and she died. But that wasn’t the first time it had happened and it surely wasn’t the last time his dreams came true. He had visions has a child too, so it had nothing to do with the source blood running through his veins. It was one thing Helen didn’t know about him. If she did, she’d want to investigate more and turn the whole show into some test and he didn’t want that. He quite liked knowing something Helen didn’t! “I become really ill when my mother died and went back to live in my home town. I should have done more while she was alive” he mutteredthe latter and admitted looked rather depressed, that’s when he noticed the girls hands in his and gave it a slight squeeze.

He noticed the girls eye fill up with tears and Nikola tried not to panic to say the least. He wondered what to do with an upset nine year old, Helen was always better at these situations then him. He usually said the wrong thing at the wrong time and made things worse. He kneeled down to Hannah’s height and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Things get better kido, you’ll learn to get strong against others and the world and learn not to care what they think, you’ll never forget your parents and they will always be with you, in here…” he tapped his head “and in here” he placed his hand against his chest, to represent where his heart was. “Now…” he straightened up to his full height and ran his hand through his hair. “I’ll take you to my lab and show you something cool... only if you promise not to set it on fire!” he said and ruffled her hair up also, before he continued to walk in the direction of his new lab.

There was two types of fathers; The Sperm Doners and the Real Genuine fathers that raised a child, their own or otherwise. Hannah knew the difference, but no matter how attached she was to Nikola, even as they had just met did not mean that he would adopt her or raise her as his own. How could she expect that? Maybe her dream of a better world would not come as soon as she hoped it would. Hannah listened to Nikola as he spoke, only feeling bad that she made him so sad when it came to speaking of his family and especially his brother. It sounded as if it had brought him great sadness, so she did not want to press him for further questions.

Hannah knew that she was easy to calm down when she was sad by only people that she trusted, and she trusted Nikola; she did not know how it just simply changed like that she just felt close to him, like they were not so different. She listened to what he said when he was at her level and smiled a bit not wanting to smile to much, she watched as he stood, her eyes searching for his but only looked at him as she paid attention. "Okay, Nikola" She chuckled and took his hand again and walked with him to the lab, she was not letting go of him, heck; she may even like Nikola more then Helen which would be a joy when Helen came to give her those nasty shots.

Nikola wondered who the hell used /cool/ these days anyway and where he had heard it from. Was he trying to speak a language the girl could understand which was totally foreign to him. If he couldn’t understand it, how did he expect the girl too? Some of the younger abnormals used it so that’s probably why he felt that it would be appropriate to use. So many different meanings to one word, if said out of context could start a fight and on the contrary could bring on world peace. Thinking about it, Helen always had a way with words, even when she shown her anger at him. He had an amused look on his face at that, then shook his head as if shaking the thought from his mind. It was not the sort of lingo he wanted to get stuck with to say the least. Leading the girl to his lab, they passed through what Nikola would describe as the reception area or lobby, where the two main architectural ground floor buildings were separated by a huge water fall and tram links to other parts of The Sanctuary. Nikola led the girl to the building on their right.

There was no need to worry about getting lost where Nikola was concerned. Once he was given the grand tour, it was like he had been given a virtual map inside of his minds eye. He was good at remembering key elements and important bits of information and of course the lesser details, he would much rather forget but couldn’t. He got the photographic memory from his mother, who used to memorize numbers and works of literature. He knew it was an important skill to have, but Nikola’s mind wasn’t like everyone else’s, or at least, he thought so. He liked to think he knew everything and the more he thought about it, the little he actually achieved. He didn’t know everything, just an awful lot more then others did. He could be extremely snarky and rude to people, often insulting and dismissing them if he feels that they’re not up to his level of intelligence. But that could relate to taking words out of complete context like he thought about momentarily ago.

Once in his lab, he picked Hannah up and sat her upon the counter, near the windows over looking the Garden District and ‘Gregory’ Lake which Nikola took as a slight insult on Helen part. Gregory, her father and him never saw eye to eye, in fact to a certain point it was one sided dislike from Gregory, because if Nikola had to reveal his true feelings for the man, he would say he admired him and his work, complete genius and that was saying something because Nikola was in the room. No matter what Nikola did, Gregory really didn’t like him which was no surprise, because according to Helen nobody at Oxford all those years back liked him anyway. Fair enough, he knew plenty of people who didn’t like Helen back then too, for the simple fact of because she was a woman doing a mans job. Nikola wandered over to the black board near the back of the room and jotted something on it with white chalk, and dragged a kind of mental trolley back over to where Hannah sat. On the trolley sat a medium sized plant that Helen had placed in his lab for some kind of decoration.

“You know when I said not to set anything on fire in my lab?” He asked with a slight half smile. “I lied – again – which seems to becoming a common theme…” he continued and gestured to the plant pot. “Set that a light!” He said, a little over excited then he should be. “We are in a laboratory, and what are they used for? Experiments – so lets get experimenting" he paused "The /cool/ bit is, still, yet to come!” He arched his eye brow at the use of that word, the second time today.