[Mason Warner]

Biology

Mason had woken up one morning with the unfortunate looming feeling that everything was terrible. He batted inwardly at the intrusive thoughts as though they nothing but annoying flies trapped in the room with him, but they rooted themselves firmly in his head and he began to slip under the wave of negativity they produced. Staring up at the ceiling, Mason battled to keep the familiar fatigue from kicking in. There was a solid weight to his chest, pinning him where he lay, that only served to confirm just what kind of mood his neurochemistry had decided to entertain him with today.

Mental illness was something Mason had become fairly well acquainted with throughout his life, but it didn’t make the tough days any less tough.

He congratulated himself for getting out of bed after only thirty minutes of convincing himself with a quick shower, not quite summoning the energy to wash his hair or brush his teeth. He stood on the mat, droplets hitting the fabric with unsatisfyingly muted splats, and spent the next ten minutes trying to conjure up any further motivation for the day.

Last night he had sent the email to work informing them that recovery had not gone as planned and that he was forced to resign from his position. Mason just couldn’t see himself drawing out the endless rehab-related excuses any longer and he equally couldn’t see himself announcing his invisibility predicament to the company. It was funny, but it just didn’t feel like his secret to tell. The inevitable conclusion, reached at 12:36 AM, was that he had to give it up. He had the savings to survive for a little while, then he’d probably have to rely on the charity of his parents and move in with them until… if powers became public knowledge.

His mood this morning subsequently made quite a lot of sense, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

Pulling on clothes – what was the point when nobody could see you? – Mason eventually managed to drag himself outside and into the fresh air. He had nothing else to do. Socialisation was not exactly at the top of his desired things to do right now. He just took the time to stride down the streets of San Francisco, heading nowhere in particular, noticed by no one. Occasionally he kicked a piece of litter, just to see if anyone would react. They didn’t, of course. Such things could always be blamed on a sudden breeze.

Somehow he found himself outside the hospital where this had all began. Well… Shortly after things had begun on the freeway, he guessed. He squinted up at the gaudy modern statue in the forecourt, trying to distract himself from the flashes of gory mental imagery that always hit him when thinking of the accident. Who designed this? It was so impersonal.

He decided to take a seat here, gazing up at the statue that was offending him so. It was oddly comforting to have a vessel to focus all his negativity on, and he was happy to stay anywhere that distracted him from the tightness in his chest.

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[Mason Warner]

Biology

There was a swirl of white in the corner of Mason's eye, and suddenly a woman was sitting beside Mason. She was short, with cropped blonde hair and sharp features. She spent a moment staring at the statue as well. Then she spoke.

“I don't like it much. Cold metal. Who wants to see that when they're coming to the hospital?”

If there was anything even more distracting than the statue, it was the sudden heart attack that struck Mason as her words pierced the air.

He moved back sharply, eyes widening as he realised she was addressing him. Could she see him? It was hard to tell as she gazed up at the oddly shaped columns, but there was no one else around to hear her words. He slowly shuffled back along the bench, putting some distance between them. Mason wasn’t prepared to give himself away in case she’d been talking to herself, but there was something keeping him from bolting altogether.

“I expected the detective to come back again; he seems the type not to let something go.”

She turned to look at him, her eyes reflecting the light oddly. “Though I am glad to see you as well, Mr Warner.”

Mason blinked.

“You can see me?” He looked down, patting at his skin as if that would reveal any secrets. Mentally feeling for the field of invisibility suggested it was still firmly in place, but maybe he had found a way to switch it off after all. He grinned somewhat hesitantly. She was looking at him, but her eyes were just so… weird.

And what was that? Mason backtracked. The detective? Did she mean Will? Also, she’d definitely just said his name… The grin faded into confusion as the woman began to speak again.

“After a fashion.”

The way she left it at that made it clear she wasn't going into any more detail about it. She settled back onto the bench, they were mostly alone in the small courtyard, and though some were passing by, none of them paid any attention to the female doctor. It was fortunate, because Mason had the feeling that if they had been paying attention she would have been quickly admitted.

“You’re the one who saved us,” he said in sudden realisation. She nodded silently in response. “What- how did you find me? Are you keeping tabs on us? Your little projects?”

She laughed. “You're not mine, I only restored what was rightfully yours. You could say I brought you back into the family.”

She looked away again, staring up at the hospital in a way that suggested she was choosing her words carefully. “Though I won't deny that I have an interest in you and the others.”

Mason frowned. “Will said that you’re using us - you want to reveal powers to the world!” His hushed tones lessened the impact of his words, but he was trying his best. Of course he wanted the same - to be able to live a normal life once more - but he knew it wasn’t a decision he could make for the rest of this… “family”. “He’s spoken to others too, people that want to stop you.”

Was that a threat or a warning? He honestly wasn’t sure.

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[Mason Warner]

Biology

“I'm not afraid of them, and they find that… concerning…”

She shrugged. “I saved your lives, all of you. Not in any expectation of payment, but I would not have attempted anything had you been healthy. So yes, you could say I used you.”

Mason wasn’t really sure what to say. ‘Thank you for saving my life’ didn’t feel quite right, even if he was of course grateful not to have joined the death toll. It was bizarre to finally be faced with the woman who had set all of this in motion. He felt a little afraid of her - she was clearly supremely powerful - and he had far too many questions to know which one to pick first. If she really could see him, ‘after a fashion’, whatever that meant, then she could hardly be impressed by his slack jaw.

“Did you know that I would turn invisible?” he blurted eventually.

She frowned, clearly a little surprised by this, of all the questions he could have asked.

“No. I restored your heritage, nothing more. Your ability has been within you since you were born, I simply woke it.”

There was no hint of deception in her voice, no suggestion that she was holding something back. She might not have been entirely forthcoming with her motives or abilities, but it seemed that she wasn't willing to lie. Mason wouldn’t go so far as to say he trusted the doctor, but he was fine to accept her words as the truth.

“So, what, my parents have hidden powers too?”

“At least one of them carried the gene. But there are those that never exhibit abilities of their own, regardless of their heritage.”

She did not seem perturbed by it, merely stating fact. She had a strangely empty way of talking about things, not completely devoid of emotions, but as if those that were present were… numbed somehow.

“Huh.”

Definitely not the conversation Mason imagined himself having today. He’d not even planned on making any conversation at all, if he was being honest. He was utterly unprepared for this scenario. If it had been Will, or Dom, anyone else really, he was sure they would ask much more pertinent questions.

But it wasn’t, it was Mason. And Mason hadn’t the faintest idea where to even begin unravelling the mysterious web they were all entangled in.

“How’s that going for you then, the whole saving people’s lives and giving… sorry, unlocking their powers thing? Anyone else been added to the family?”

She smiled faintly, though painfully, as though it were a sore subject. “No one yet, you were my first. You will not be the last.”

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[Mason Warner]

Biology

He scuffed the heel of his shoe against the floor, awkward under the pressure of knowing who he was talking to and just how important they were. The other survivors would jump at the opportunity to meet with her. Mason supposed he could always send a quick message out but he could only imagine that the doctor would put on another display of her amazing disappearing skills if they all suddenly convened on her. That, and she didn’t seem to be here to cause any trouble. She seemed comfortable with his current, shambolic line of questioning for now, at least.

Her reaction to his last question was strange. She’d displayed a hint of emotion that was vaguely familiar to him, though he couldn’t put his finger on it. It was a suppressed pain, something twisting the corners of her mouth as she smiled.

“I figured you’d have a plan for more heritage-restoring,” he said wryly. “Seems important to you. A vocation?”

He’d been thinking a lot about vocation now that he’d made the leap and resigned from the project management world. In his current mental state, he was rather doubting his enthusiasm for the whole heroism thing, but he had previously convinced himself that it was his vocation. It certainly seemed to be Alice’s.

“I wouldn't say so. There's no calling, no higher power making me do this. I… don't know…”

The Doctor shrugged turning as if to look at Mason once more, looking at him, though not quite able to meet his eyes.

“It would be comforting to think so though… but there's no greater purpose here…”

He tilted his head. “So, why are you doing it?”

She shook hers. “I'm tired. I'm tired of hiding. Tired of being afraid. Tired of being alone.”

Another shadow crossed her face, a ghost of long buried pain.

Mason nodded, a sympathetic look spreading through his features. In a weird way, he was recognising a kindred soul in the Doctor.

“I can understand that. I think I’d like a family one day too, even if I’m not gonna do… this,” he gestured vaguely around them, “To get one.”

Genuine confusion rose on the Doctor's face, the clearest and most prominent emotion she had shown so far as it overwhelmed her control.

An odd response, Mason thought.

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[Mason Warner]

Biology

He took a moment to search her expression, trying to find the source of her confusion. Could she not see why he wouldn’t go to the same lengths that she had? (Not that he could, resurrection and power activation didn’t seem to be part of his power set). Or maybe she implying that he had left it too late - 34 and still very single; not even close to getting a family. Or that he just didn’t seem the type to want one in the first place.

“What?” he asked, a little bristly. Mason wasn’t exactly in the mood to be contemplating his lack of family right now.

“How can you understand? You have family.”

Mason frowned, feeling embarrassed. “I have my moms, but they moved away. That’s all, really. So yeah, I think I do understand.” His tone was defensive, the edge in his voice highly contrastive to the gentle sympathy he’d been expressing only moments before.

She frowned, now concerned rather than confused, "Please, whatever you do, don't throw away the family you have. You will regret it for the rest of your life."

She was talking earnestly to him now, as though forgetting what it might look like. “Whatever she might have done to drive a wedge between you, she is still family.”

“...What? Who are you talking about?”

He was starting to suspect that the Doctor’s sole mission in life was not, in fact, to expand her family of humans with superpowers. She seemed to thrive on enigmas, playing with other people as though they were toys. It was feeling very much like she was just trying to mess with him now. The worst thing was that it was working - Mason was getting more riled up with each breath.

The Doctor spoke.

“Your daughter…”

Suddenly Mason could barely remember how to breathe at all.

“My daughter?”

He felt light-headed - a likely side effect of the whole not-breathing thing. But, moreover, a heart-pounding giddiness had spread through his body, the tightness in his chest contracting and releasing suddenly in one overwhelming motion. He wasn’t even sure if he’d heard the Doctor right. His daughter?

She nodded hesitantly, clearly perturbed by his reaction, as though she had expected something entirely different.

“Alice… I understand she does not share your name, but she is undoubtedly your blood.”

Alice’s face flashed before his eyes - such a sweet girl, only 18.

18…

Mason widened his eyes and counted back slowly in his head. He would have been 16 when she was born. He was 16 when his high school sweetheart had been taken from him - vanished away mysteriously by her family with no real explanation. The suspicion had always been there, but…

“Oh my God…”

He looked at the Doctor, trying to find any hint of falsehood. It could be another trick but, no. Mason didn’t believe that.

“Alice is my daughter!”

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