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 Liz wheels Maria inside the Eagle Rock compound, but at least they were outside in the fresh air, away from the claustrophobic barren interior. The white surgical scrubs they wear have a slight medical smell. She feels guilty that Max has healed her, while Maria is still in pain with serious leg injuries.
"Have you seen, Max?"
Liz shakes her head.
"Not since he healed me. I'm really scared, Maria. It's like they're deliberately keeping us apart now," says Liz. "I'd really feel better if I just saw him."
"What did they do to you?" asks Maria.
Liz sidesteps the issue. She wasn't ready to talk about the graphic details of her latest "physical exam" which, in her mind, was so intrusive, so like what rape must feel like. She shakes her feelings aside.
“I wanted Max to, you know ..."
"Hey, I can deal," says Maria, "but girlfriend, you were in bad shape."
"Yeah," says Liz thoughtfully, "I know, but it doesn't make me feel better. I can't help feeling this is my fault. And I hate seeing you and Michael hurt ..."
"How could it possibly be your fault?"
"If I had been paying more attention ..."
"To what? Liz, you can't live your life as if a bomb is going to explode."
"That's the problem. ... It did, didn't it?"
"Okay, bad example."
"Maria," says Liz, "Didn't they talk to you?"
"About what? The bomb?"
"This isn't about the bomb."
"Well, I thought it was kind of funny."
"It's about us -- you, me, Kyle, Max ..."
"What are you talking about?"
"We flunked our medicals -- all of us."
"Flunked how?"
"I don't know, maybe different reasons, but I just got an embarrassing lesson in my own medical history."
"How embarrassing?"
"How embarrassing do you think it can get?"
"Besides being spread-eagled in the doctor's office?"
"Worse."
"Did you and Max make love? You had sex with Max!" realizes Maria, then adds, "I had sex with Michael."
"I know. But THEY know it."
"Oh, God, my mom is going to kill me if she finds out. She's going to hire the Sopranos and ..."
"Maria, don't go drama queen on me," says Liz. "I learned something else."
"What?"
"I'm changing."
"Well, tell me something I don't know."
"No, I mean physically different."
Maria stares at Liz.
"You remember when they found Cadmium X on Pierce's bones?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Where Max healed me, they found traces of Cadmium X."
"You're kidding?"
Liz shakes her head.
"When they took the MRIs at the hospital, it showed up. I think that's what triggered all of this." At least, I think that's part of it."
"Michael and Isabel?"
"They must have run blood tests, X-rays, and God knows what else on all of us when we came into the ER and since there was no one to stop them, they must have gotten the results and that why they suspected something might have been in the bomb. When the FBI got involved, it must have alerted the Special Unit. They had a perfect opportunity to isolate us from the rest without causing too much suspicion about our disappearance."
"But the Special Unit was disbanded. We watched it on C-SPAN."
Liz shakes her head. "Don't you see, Maria. They NEVER went away. They just went further underground. They know everything there is to know about us, even things we don't even know. I have this awful feeling that there's more."
"What are we going to do?"
"I don't know," says Liz. "That's why I wanted to talk to Max. Maybe he has an idea."
"What about our parents?"
"They couldn't not let them come without arousing suspicions, so ..., " says Liz, with a flourish of her hand, leaving Maria to fill in the blanks. She continues, "Mom and Dad know about Max; I think the Evans know something, too."
"And when my mom comes finishes comes out of the mind warp ..."
"They'll all know something. I wish I knew what they know."
"I don't know about my mom."
"I haven't even talked with mine about it. They were there when Max healed me."
"They were there?" asks Maria incredulously.
"Yeah," says Liz. "I don't even want to deal with that one."
"Well, it could be worse. They could know about the sex."
"Maria," says Liz. "Think about it. They have to know."
"I think I want to die, right now."
"Don't say that," says Liz, "Besides, I need your help. Something that agent said."
"About what?"
"Ni-Cad batteries."
"What?"
"Max, what did they do to us," asks Isabel. "Why can't we use our powers? Do they have one of those devices that Brody has?"
"No," he says, "Pierce told me that the source of our power comes through the cerebral cortex."
"The what?" says Michael.
"They can disable our powers by doing something to the cerebral cortex."
"So what do we do?" asks Isabel.
"I'm not sure," says Max. "I thought Liz would have some ideas. Have you seen her?"
Liz is outside with Maria," says Kyle, entering. "Is this a party or anyone can join?"
Yeah, sure," says Max.
"Oh, good," says Kyle, "Maybe Buddha can direct us on the path to spiritual enlightenment by getting us out of here."
Max and Michael find Liz and Maria near the fence, looking out. Maria sits in the wheelchair, while Liz sits cross-legged on the ground next to her friend.
"Hey," says Max.
"Hi," says Liz, visibly relieved. "I was looking for you earlier. Are you okay?"
"As much as any of us can be okay."
"Michael, how come you're still hobbling around?" asks Maria.
"We can't use our powers."
"Max?" questions Liz.
"It's true."
"How can they do that?" asks Liz.
"It has something to do with the cerebral cortex."
Liz stands and nuzzles Max.
"I don't know how much they can hear us, but we need to talk."
"I know."
Max puts his arms around Liz and they begin to walk away from Michael and Maria.
"I'm sorry they made you do that," says Liz.
"I would have done it anyway," says Max.
"Max, what do our parents know?"
He stops and turns to face her.
"Isabel and I ... we tried to tell our parent, but ..."
"... you couldn't."
"No ... we left certain things out."
"What did you tell them?"
Max lowers his head
They don't know, do they?" says Liz.
"Can we talk about this later?"
"Umm, yeah, sorry. ... I didn't get a chance to thank you earlier, you know, for making me better."
Max brushes Liz's hair away from her face and smiles.
"Thank you." she says.
They continue their walk.
"My parents saw everything, didn't they?"
"Yes," says Max.
Liz nods.
"What do they know?"
"Only what they saw."
"Will you tell them ... our parents?
"I guess that depends on what happens next."
"I think I can help," she says and pulls back so she can she Max's face.
He kisses Liz on the lips, then moves to her neck. It's all she can do to just keep her head and talk.
"I saw my medical reports, Max, and ... they're weird."
Max stops and asks, "Weird, how?"
"I think I'm storing electrical energy."
"What? How?"
"That guy from the FBI really said it. They found Cadmium X in my MRIs. I never thought about it until he mentioned it, but Cadmium from Earth is sometimes used in batteries, for secondary cells ... you know, to store electricity. I think that's what might be happening with me. My EEGs have been steadily increasingly and no one knows why. Well, what if I'm storing some kind of energy, Max, to use -- I don't even know how."
"Is that even possible?"
"The Cadmium X must have some of the properties of the Earth's Cadmium and maybe something else. Or maybe it's identical to our Cadmium, except more concentrated. I don't know exactly. But if that's what's happening ... if we can figure out how the disperse the energy, maybe I can help get us all out of here."
"I don't know. Is it safe ... for you?"
"I have no idea. I keep thinking about batteries and how they operate. It's almost like completing an electrical circuit. ... Max, I think I have an idea," Liz says.
The gang reconvenes in The White Room. Kyle raps his fingers against the wall.
"Will you stop that!" exclaims Maria. "You're driving me up the wall."
"What?"
"Drumming your fingers."
"Sorry, can't help it," says Kyle. "You know, that mind-warpy thing. I guess it's like the shakes in withdrawal."
Max nods.
Behind the one-way mirror, the dark-suited man asks, "Can you filter that out?"
"No, it's too close to the audio links. We'll have to filter the tape playback the hard way."
"That will take too long."
"Where do you think they're going?"
"Never underestimate your enemy."
"For Chrissakes, they're kids!"
"That's what some of my combat buddies in Vietnam said before a seven-year-old kid on a bicycle blew them to smithereens. These kids here... they may be 17, 18 but they're going on 30. There's not an innocent one in the lot."
"They can see us and they can hear us," says Max. "But they can't hear us well thanks to Kyle."
"It's only a matter of time before they clean up the tape," says Liz.
"So it's important we strike quickly," says Max. Liz has come up with an idea,. "Liz."
"We think that the Special Unit has found a way to short circuit your cerebral cortex through electrical means. It's similar to where spinal cord research is going, accept in reverse. Instead of reconnecting live nerves around dead nerves through electrical bypasses, they're doing the reverse. They're shutting down the nerve connections in your brain that control your powers. Like the dilithium triangular shuts you down."
"That's why we can't use our powers?" asks Isabel.
"Yes."
"So how do we get them back?" asks Michael.
"I know," says Kyle. "We have to switch the power off."
"Yes," says Liz, "or we have to reestablish the connections using a different source of electrical energy ... you know, to jump start your powers."
"Where are we going to find that?" asks Michael.
"Me," says Liz.
"You're kidding."
"Liz's body is storing energy," says Max.
"How?" says Isabel. "Where's it coming from?"
"When I healed Liz at the Crashdown, it left traces of Cadmium X in her body. The Cadmium X is somehow stealing electrical energy and storing it. Now that I healed her again, the Cadmium X is doubling the amount of energy build up."
"My EEG readings are off the scope."
"So you're saying you're like the Energizer Bunny?" asks Kyle.
"Yeah, sort of," says Liz, laughing. "I haven't got time to explain it all now. Let's just say that certain things make it possible."
"So how does that help?" asks Michael.
"Well, it means I might be able to drain the power from Eagle Rock ..."
"And electrocute yourself," says Maria.
"... for a short period of time and Maria, we don't know that," continues Liz. "Maybe if Eagle Rock has no power, then whatever is preventing you from using your powers can be disabled."
"Or I can somehow discharge the energy stored in my body and use it to reconnect what Eagle Rock has stolen from you ... your powers," she says, looking from Michael to Isabel to Max. "The problem is we don't know from where the energy comes or how to channel it."
"We thought if Liz focuses her thoughts ... like Nasedo said," says Max, "that Liz could channel and control the energy."
"I don't like this plan," says Maria, "What happens to you?"
"I don't know. That's a risk I have to take, Maria. There's too many lives at stake here. It's not just us. It's our parents, too."
"Maria's right," says Michael. "This is a bad idea. We don't know how they shut us down. They could just be using some kind of drug on us."
"If they are using drugs to numb the nerves, then this could wake them up. We don't have a lot of options here."
"You could die," she says.
"If we stay here, we'll all die. Remember what they did to Max? And Pierce ... he was willing to kill us all? Do you think that has changed just because Pierce is gone?
Maria slowly shakes her head.
"We have to do something," says Max. "And we have to do it now."
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