The Stranger (Frenchie)

[Rebecca Walker]

May 2, 1992 Lawrence Kansas

8 year old Becca Walker sat on the bottom step in her families home. They were a typical Midwestern family without the farm. Her father was a therapist who usually worked at home and her mother happened to bake the best apple pie in town. They had a nice sized house for it being in Kansas, they had 2 cars, they even had a boat but Becca really wanted a dog. Though she wasn’t as normal like everyone else. Her father had powers, he could freeze anything which came in handy when she melted her ice cream. She thought her father was Clark Kent till he told her that her imagination was getting the best of her like it usually did.

Like once when they visited her grandma Ida May in California. She had wanted to go to the ocean but her father said they needed to go visit an old neighbor. She threw a fit and that’s when an Earthquake broke. She thought she had done that but her dad kept saying it was the state that did it.

She wanted to go swimming so she waited looking down the hall where her father’s home office was. She had seen a man go into her father’s office earlier in the day but he hadn’t come out yet. So she waited playing with her yellow bow her mother stuck in her head this morning before school.

[frenchie]

"You can't leave the Nine, there's enough tension between the founders already," James insisted. He had just learned that his business associate known only to him as the Frenchman that would be soon be leaving the organization that both of them and seven other powerful individuals formed with the intent of looking after the world. The Frenchman's role was to fight so others didn't have to, James' role was to manipulate, and he was strangely good at it. "If you leave then everything we are working on will go undone. What about the Twin Project?"

"Murray has transferred the project back into the hands of Primatech," The Frenchman informed his business partner as he gazed out out of the window of his office. His eyes fell upon the Walker's young daughter, Rebbecca. He was well aware of her power after an earthquake study reveal her to be the epicenter of a recent earthquake. A company known as Primatech tried take her in for experimentation. The Frenchman met with the goons sent to kidnap her and used his aggressive negotiations to sort out the problem. They're dismembered bodies were left outside.

He couldn't help but wonder what the future held for her. Despite his power to see the future, he could never really choose what he saw. Only strange glimpses in dreams, visions and paintings. He heard James about to say something but was interrupted by a phone call from his wife. Not wanting to really listen in, the Frenchman left the room and decided to talk to the young girl. "Hey there Rebbecca, it's been I while since I've seen you, though you wouldn't remember me. Last time was when you were still learning to use the potty. I'm guessing that by now that you've master it. How you finding school?

[Rebecca Walker]

Becca looked up to the man who just came out of her father’s office. She gave a questioning look when he said they had met before. She remembered him a little bit but with more hair. “School’s ok. Are you a patient of my dad’s?” She wasn’t sure who he was but she knew he was different maybe he was like her dad.

“My dad treated a girl once.” Her eyes lit up as she talked. “She could make anyone do anything.” Becca looked to the ground remembering her friend who she had only met a couple times. “Since you’re crazy you might know her. Her name is Sarah Ellis.”

[frenchie]

The Frenchman chuckled at the young girls assumption. "No, I'm not a patient of your fathers. More of a colleague and I'm well aware of Sarah Ellis, she was a... special case," The Frenchman replied, well aware of who she was. She was only begining to develop her power and was found by the Nine when she used her power to kill her stepmother. The power of persuasion was a powerful tool indeed, something his past showed all too way, but it's power not only affected one a persons will but also their body. The Frenchman was quiet amazed when he heard the story.

"But she can't tell me what to do, I'm special," The Frenchman told her with a wink. "I gain an immunity to people like her during the war. It was a gift from an bad man, and was eventually he downfall. Speaking of Sarah, what other patients of your father have you met?"

[Rebecca Walker]

Becca stares at him as he tells her he is a colleague of her dad’s. She wasn’t sure what he was going on about but she knew it had to be something good something she wanted in on. “You’re special?” She stood up bright eyed looking at him. “What kind of special?”

Her eyes now dimmed down. “A bad man? You were in a war?” Her expression now went to a more curious tone. “I’m not allowed to meet my dad’s clients.” She smirked at him. “I spy when they come into the house.”

She walked to the stair well pushing in the wood work taking out a piece of paper handing it to the man. “I write down who I think has powers.” She sits back down. “One guy I swear he could control peoples movement.” She then pointed to a name as she giggled. “That one wasn’t m dad’s client I guess his dad knows my dad. Isaac is funny. He made the best jokes and likes to read comics.” Shaking her head. “He likes to think he knows the future but he just wanted me to kiss him.”

[frenchie]

The Frenchman looked at the list and using his power of eidetic memory he acquired from one her Becca's father's clients, he read the notes and imprinted everything into the back of his mind. Perhaps one of these people could hold the key to his problem; the key to the defeat of time that has plagued him ever since the death of his mother. However he would have to act quickly. Even know he felt his powers slipping from his body. He could no longer predict the future. His last drawings showed an old man in an old library with a young blond, a tiger leaper and the faces of the fellow founders of the Nine circled around the symbol.

"This is very interesting. I may not be able to see the future anymore, but I can tell you certainly have a bright future ahead of you. Wanna see something cool? Don't tell your father I'm showing you this," The Frenchman extended his hand and fingers towards a potted plant on the other side of the room. A small laser beam shot from his fingers and pierced a hole in one of the plants many leaves. He blew the tip of the fingers as if it was a smoking gun and smiled at the little Becca.

[Rebecca Walker]

Becca jumped up and down full of pure excitement. “Again. Do it again.” She walked over to the plant studying the leaf before turning back to him. “You are very special.” She sat back down. “I want to be special but my dad says I just have a big imagination.”