New Pasadena, 10:00 am. Monday, January 15, 2057. New CalTech-Biochemistry building – Louise Rossi’s office

After the news about the appearance of a new portal in the vicinities of Old Santa Barbara, Melvin has contacted his friend Dr. Rupert Giles, an English historian and librarian, who has an especial connection with a team that fight dark forces organizations related with some of the entities in those portals; Dr. Giles is a peculiar man, Melvin met him during his adolescence, when he has 14; then, Giles was already an adult on his late forties, however today, that man looks like in his early fifties, more or less as Melvin, and indeed a little younger, even though his age should be around eighty or ninety; the observation per se was a conundrum that was eating Melvin’s brain since their last encounter five years ago; and most strange is the fact that Dr. Giles classes, as Melvin inquests pointed,  were done in the modality of teleconferences and almost no one has seen him in person in the classrooms of New London’s Global University. After many years of haven’t seen him, an hphone call, five days ago, from England astonished Melvin; Dr. Giles was asking for a meeting with Melvin and ‘his people’, surprised Melvin asked what ‘people’ it could be, and Giles answered, ‘your people of New CalTech, the professors, your older daughter and the two students, your younger daughter and her friend…hmm … or girlfriend, I believe’; he wanted to talk about the portals; at that moment, Melvin didn’t give him a date, but after the last news about Old Santa Barbara’s possible portal, Bette’s father decided to call the meeting for Monday at 10:00 am, and here they are in Louise’s office. Louise is filling some tea and coffee in her visitors’ teacups and some juice for Tina and Bette, who are a little uneasy because they were told that the guest was an old guy with probably conservative ideas and it should be better for them to behave as good friends and not as lovers, Tina, of course, replayed ‘mom, what if I touch her…? or if we hold hands, or if we  hug, we can’t avoid that, is not in our nature’ and Louise told her, ‘baby just pretend, until we know how he is… or I will show you both, my nature…’, anyway here they are and all eyes were focused on Rupert.

New Pasadena, 4:00 p.m. Sunday, July 16, 2056. Rossi-Kennard-Fairbanks’ house

The conversation in Louise office has escalated into an argument between Tina and her mother; the blonde is finally speaking about her issues after years of been hiding them. Her mother stands up from her seat and walks toward her daughter that is in one of the ends of the sofa in front of her mother’s chair, in the other end Bette is seated and Melvin is observing seated from beside Louise’s chair. Louise bends down to pull Tina from her arms until she stands up, then wraps her arms around her daughter

Louise: “Tina… baby… what do you mean?”

Tina: (pointing to Bette) “you love her… because you were in love with her mother…,

Bette’s face was red and her eyes glassy.

Louise: “no, baby…”

Tina: … you and mom Kristen, you both were her mom’s lovers; you both wished she was your daughter the daughter of the woman that you both loved…,

Louise: “that’s not true…”

Tina: …., not me…, what was I…, I was just an accident, a side product, a bastard…

Louise: “STOP TINA…, STOP”

Tina: … an error, that you both didn’t want…, NOT ME…, YOU REALLY WANTED HER (pointing to Bette)”

Tina was out of control, trembling, shouting, and as usually when the panic and strong emotions invaded her, her mouth and actions were quicker than her brain, something that Louise, knew, her daughter has inherited from Kristen, and Louise has to do the same she usually did with her passed wife, in a quick action she slapped softly her daughter’s face and at the same time hugged her tightly allowing her to cry on her shoulder.

Louise: “I love you so deeply my love, you are the apple of my eyes, the light, the meaning of my life, you are my own flesh, there is no women or men in the whole universe that worth more than you to me”

Tina: (crying) “…ooh mommy…, mommy”

Louise: “I want you to know honey that Kristen loved you more than herself…, we both competed for your preference…, and she always cheated, spoiling you with gifts and indulging your whims and tantrums”

Tina: “I never had whims and tantrums…, I miss her”

New Pasadena, 8:00 am. Tuesday, May 16, 2056. – New CalTech- Biochemistry building – Louise Rossi’s office

Louise has been testing and analyzing different blood level of hormones in combination with irradiation of artificial magnetic fields the study has been done both in a holographic simulation system and in her own body. She has already seen and feel the changes that produce the effect of new proteins in herself and with that, the achievement of new skills; she has found the appropriate combination to promote the acquisition of different mutated abilities, and what is left is to find the way of naturally produce those exotic combinations in the rest of the people, because she already has them since two weeks ago.

Flashback two weeks ago – 12:10 a.m. Tuesday, May 2, 2056 – Rossi-Kennard-Fairbanks’ house

It is passed midnight and Louise can’t sleep, she is spinning and jumping in the bed for more than an hour until Sharon wakes up.

Sharon: “what’s wrong sweetie?”

Louise: “I’m sorry baby; I can’t sleep, I better to go to my office”

Sharon: “why…? it is midnight.”

Louise:  “I have to check some files; there is something that is taking my sleep away”

In her house office, Louise went to her htab to check for some files that Tina extracted from the old internet the folder has the title ‘ancient rituals of native cultures’, reading again how those people could find peace in meditation, cleaning their minds and getting themselves in harmony with nature, removing all the bad feelings from their hearts and focus themselves on their objectives, and she wants that, but first she needs, to be honest with herself, she needs to face the truth, to forgive herself, to left all the guilt to go away, as Melvin Porter told her.

The scientist opened a security box in the wall behind a big picture of Kristen, Tina and herself from 10 years ago; she extracted a metallic box, and set it on the top of her desk, she sat on her chair and used a key code from her hcube to open it, inside there were some chips and old pictures, she chose one without holographic projection, she saw it, two adults and three children, her father, mother, sister, and brother; she remember vividly that day, her brother Peter (Pedro) and her sister Carla had to go back to UC San Francisco, and all the family had planned to go there, but Louise had won her school science fair on Friday and she must present her work on Monday at the Community Center along with the winners of the other schools in Modesto’s county, so her parents decide that she and her mom should stay and her daddy could drive her siblings to San Francisco. A tear is running on Louise’s cheek, if she had not won the championship her entire family had been united at the time of the earthquake all would have died and her mother had not suffered so much humiliation, pain, and sadness later before dying; Louise felt always responsible for how her mother died, for how she couldn’t stop the rest of her family to travel that day, so they could still be alive and together.

New Pasadena, 12:00 m. Wednesday, March 15, 2056. New CalTech – SAC

The fight among students of both sides is getting out of hands and soon everybody in the bistro is involved, either by friendship with one of the belligerents or because a portion of flying food hit their faces or clothes. Besides Bette, Tina, Bo, Lauren, Helena, Dylan, Alice, Dana, Jane, Maura, Shane, Carmen, Frankie, Cat in one side and Jodie, Kelly, Brenda, Candace, Nadia, Kate, Henry, Josh, Tonya, Yolanda, Catherine, Gabby, Ton, Erick in the other side, 8 other students are now in the quarrel.

Brenda: “stop Tina…, stop hitting her”

Brenda, situated behind Bette’s girlfriend, is making fist to hit Tina; but after pushing Kelly away, Bette is running toward the short blonde to avoid the treacherous attack

Tina: (hitting Jodie’s face) “you have to wash your mouth before you mention my mother’s name; you are a pathetic slut that could never cope to lose the beautiful girl that is now mine, wake up bitch I’m the new girl in town that is going to kick your ass out of New CalTech if you keep harassing my girlfriend”

At that moment Brenda’s fist travels toward Tina’s face, hitting first Bette’s arm and receiving a couple of slaps from the brunette.

Bette: “don’t you dare to touch my girlfriend”

Henry comes for behind to attack Bette, immobilizing her, with a hug, touching intentionally or not, her right breast, which isn’t unnoticed by Tina, who immediately hits hard with her knee his lower back, making him drop his arms and fall on his knees and then Bette finishes him with a punch in his jaw, making Josh and Erick run away and Tom back off

After few minutes a patrol from the emergency system is present in the SAC and is taking everybody to the security office including Josh and Erick that were running away with their disheveled clothes, red faces and hair with rests of food; Jodie has a broken lip and a black eye and is limping, Kelly has a bleeding nose, and Brenda a bleeding lip, the rest of the students have minor or overlooked injuries but most of them have dirty clothes with bits of food; inside of the big patrol truck, the girls are still making threats one to another.

New Pasadena, 7:30 p.m. Friday, February 18, 2056. New CalTech – SAC

After Louise and Sharon left, taking Dana and Alice with them, the remaining professors decided to take a look to the other students’ residence’s building to evaluate the damage and check if any student was left on them; the fact that there was no fatalities among the students makes most of the scholars happy, but Leonor; Professor Pieszecki is angry because her daughter didn’t come with her, indeed when they arrived she witnesses some emotional reunions as Dana and Sharon, the young brunette, jumped on her mother; Phillis and Molly, the blonde president embraced her red-hair daughter who took shelter on the SAC when the storm started two days ago and Peggy and Helena, who were together since 2 hours ago, but still they were very emotional embracing  and taking care of each other and of Dylan that was still in post-traumatic shock;  but when Leonor, saw her daughter, she felt awkward, which was noticed by Alice, when the older Pieszecki just stopped in front of her daughter.

Flashback (one hour ago)

The f-cars have arrived to the SAC, the building has a center part or core and four wings, the core has three floors and a covered rooftop and the wings have only one floor; due to the lightning, hail and a possibly small tornado, the west wing was completely destroyed, fortunately, in this part of the building, there were only a gift shop, the Memorial room with pictures and trophies of former students from before the hecatomb, the students senate meeting room and other three rooms that were being redecorated; as most of the weekdays, the Memorial room was empty, the gift shop closed at 3:30 pm and there were not senate meeting on Wednesday, the few employees and students wandering this zone, found shelter at the core of the SAC; after the professors verified that there was no fatal casualties in that part of the building, they proceed to go to the core section, where the most of the survivors were making lines to get their food from the cafeterias and bistro; as the scholars were spotted, many students and the two surviving professors Joyce Wischnia, who came from the auditorium using the pipe subterraneous  network, and Peggy Peabody, who was there for dining came to greet the newcomers. A big group of students led by Maura, Lena and Alice heads toward Louise greeting, acclaiming loudly and hugging her, besides the former ones the group is composed by Helena, Dylan, Frankie, Cat, Olivia, Alex, Shane, Carmen, Jenny, Nicky, Jane, Stef and Dana; Louise gets emotional and Sharon moves her arm around her fiancé’s shoulder; the group of students surrounds her and they start telling her about the storm, and after few minutes  suddenly there is silence, all of them stares at Louise’s eyes as trying to tell her something they don’t want the other professors hear; Louise feels in her mind a whisper ‘we have to talk’