Tina Chan - imperfect

Ghost had slunk back to them in the meantime and was checking out Finn’s crutches.

“You’re a Natural,” Kristi said hurriedly, not wanting to be caught on the streets past curfew in an unfamiliar city. “A surviving Accident. I’m Kristi; this is Troop, Chelsa and Jaiden.” She pointed out each person. “The leopard belongs to Chelsa and is named Ghost.”

“Alright, that makes sense so far,” said Finn. “But why the heck are you looking for me?”

“We’re looking for the four Naturals to unlock a slate that my parents left—“

“Wait, did you say your name was Kristi and you have a brother named Jaiden?” Finn cut her off.

“Yeah.”

“Aren’t you, like, a wanted person?”

“I guess.”

“She’s really not that scary,” Troop inputted.

“But that’s beside the point,” Kristi said, waving off the interruption. “We’re trying to complete this quest and need the fingerprints of the four Naturals to unlock the electro-slate my parents left behind.”

“You’ve lost me,” Finn said. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Curfew in five minutes!” the same guard barked, doubling back past them. “You kids better get going.”

“Why don’t you guys come over to my house for the night?” Finn offered. “My parents are constantly having random people stay over, so they shouldn’t mind if you want to stay in the guest rooms tonight. You can keep your droid-horses in our spare garage.”

They set off after Finn on his crutches, winding deeper and deeper into Oppidum until they arrived at a decent sized house made up of tinted glass panels.

A woman in her mid-thirties came out of the houses and said, “Finn, why are you home so late? And who are these people with you?”

“I lost of track of time,” Finn replied, taking his last minute guests up to the front door. “And these people say I’m a Natural like them.”The word “Natural” must’ve made sense to Finn’s mom because she jolted her head up and looked at them.

“Well,” she said, “do come in. I think there is someone who is very interested in meeting you three in the house.”

“So, we meet again.” Dr. Hanson strolled into the living room. “I hope you are in better shape than before, Kristi.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“And also, thanks for making reservations at the Rex Hotel for us,” Chelsa added.

“I assume you found the headquarters, correct?”

Kristi nodded. As glad as she was to meet Dr. Hanson, she wanted to unlock the electro-slate now . She was itching to know what the slate contained.

Dr. Hanson must’ve noticed her restlessness because he said, “Kristi, you seem eager to do something.” The tone he spoke in implied he already knew about the electro-slate Tiffany had given her.

“The slate!” Chelsa exclaimed. “I’ve been so caught up in my own problems I’ve completely forgotten about the electro-slate your parents left for you.”

Everyone crowded around Kristi as she removed the slate from her pocket and powered the screen on. Words glowed to life:

Fingerprints of the Naturals required for Access.

“Here it goes,” Kristi said mostly to herself.

She pressed her thumb onto the screen. A small beep emitted from the electro-slate.

Troop, Chelsa and Finn followed her example with Dr. Hanson, Jaiden and Finn’s parents looking on with great interest. Finn, the last Natural to scan his finger, removed his thumb from the slate and two icons appeared on the screen.

One of the icons was a blue folder with the words Disappearance Case labeled on it; the second icon looked identical to the first except the words Individualism Case were written on it.

“Of course,” Finn’s mom murmured. “Those are the cases Shelly and Kyle were working on for the last five years. It only makes sense for them to want Kristi to complete them.”

Kristi tapped on the Disappearance Case icon and a document popped up. She shifted into a comfier position on the sofa and started to read:

Case: The Disappearance Case

Assigned Member (s): Kyle and Shelly

Note: Kristi, if you are reading this, then we (Maria and Don) must either be dead or as good as dead. You have been a wonderful daughter to us and we regret we couldn’t have spent more time together. Nevertheless, if you have gotten ahold of this electro-slate, then you must know about the Revealers. We hope you forgive us for keeping this part of our lives a secret from you and Jaiden. If you have unlocked this slate (which you obviously have if you’re reading this), then you must’ve found the other three Naturals. Best of luck in completing the cases we have left behind.

Situation: Where are the Accidents disappearing? Every year, thousands of Accidents, most under a month old, disappear from the records without a trace. Why is the government collecting them and where are they keeping them?

Information gathered:

• All Accidents—save the Naturals—are under two months when they disappear

• People who have questioned where the Accidents are died shortly afterwards

• Stevey is more than he seems

ѻ Stevey probably knows where the missing Accidents are; the only problem is getting him to talk

• Possible locations where the Accidents may be found:

ѻ San King, East Region

ѻ Waterfront, West Region

ѻ Klisbury, East Region

Kristi finished reading and no one spoke for a moment. The sound of Ghost’s tongue rasping as he washed his paws was amplified a hundredfold in the otherwise soundless room.

It was Kristi who spoke first. “But that still doesn’t explain why there are four Naturals. Any member of the Revealers could’ve completed this case.”

“Read the second file,” Troop suggested.

She exited the document and selected the Individualism Case. Then she started to read once more:

Case: The Individualism Case

Assigned Member(s): Kyle and Shelly

Situation: Many would argue that humanity has become perfected with science. Diseases and conditions such as cancer, stroke and heart attacks are unheard of. Everyone is more or less genetically perfect. Or are they? Has the human race forgotten what perfect is? The truth is, while it may be true that people nowadays have perfect vision, faster learning skills and better physiques than before, the overwhelming majority of the population has forgotten how to think for themselves; they have accepted “perfect” as who they are; no one has individual opinions anymore. This may cause serious problems in the future as the population has a standardized mindset, thus allowing everyone to be manipulated easily. However, what is most troubling is that the human race seems to have forgotten “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” “Perfection” is merely an opinion, not a state of being. The people have to be reminded that having genetically perfect DNA does not make the human race perfect if their minds and humanity are growing weaker.

Solution: We (Kyle and Shelly) have requested four babies with unaltered DNA to be brought up as normally as possible. The Revealers have agreed to provide protection to these four kids to ensure their survival (Tiffany Mendax is in charge of this). It is our goal for these four Naturals, as we have dubbed the four kids, to grow up as normally as possible and in time, show the world it is our differences that make the world a more interesting place. The Revealers have been relentlessly recruiting more followers and members since this project was launched. To date, there are roughly 125,000 Revealer members worldwide.

“125,000 members,” Kristi said. “That’s quite a lot of people.”