HELEN

I was strolling by the river when I saw an old man sitting on a bench under a tree, staring at me with bright blue eyes. He was holding a newspaper in his hands. I stilled for a moment, digesting the fact that he really couldn't see me. It only took me a second to realize that he was looking at the space above me.

I approached him to check if my theory was right. And he really couldn't see me. I giggled and looked at him.

He shook his head muttering something to himself before returning back to the newspaper. I continued my walk of solace and headed to Lisa's home. The meeting at her place was to start sharp at 8:30. I looked at my watch and knew that there was a plenty of 'twenty minutes' to go.

The meeting was held by The Trio Squad to plan about a mission with The Trio Squad itself. We wanted to find the reason of the disappearance of James, our mentor. I reached the destination with 10 minutes to spare. But as usual, Steph had beat me to Lisa's.

I knocked the door. Steph opened the door and whispered, "Helen, is that you?"

I silently and slowly ducked under her arm and went inside. I turned back to her becoming visible, and asked, "Is what me?"

She turned and let out a yelp. "I have told you not to do that, idiot! I'm still not used to our powers!" she mumbled.

"Sorry, Mademoiselle." I saluted.

Lisa yelled from inside, "That's enough, guys! Come on in and have a drink, Helen!"

"I sure will, Boss! I'm coming." I raced Steph to the dining room.

We sat around the dining table with glasses of orange juice each. [Lisa is a fan of healthy foods and drinks. Oh-kay! So I get that both of them are in the serious mood and all–jokes–apart–mode.]

"Guys, we have to do something about James ASAP." Lisa stated.

[Oopsy Daisy! Daisy Pwaisy! Sorry, guys. I didn't tell about how the Trio Squad came into being, right? I am writing the first chapter so I guess I have to tell you about us. So let's start.]

Here's how it all started:

Elizabeth Smith (Lisa), Stephanie Stevens (Steph), and I (Helena Walters) were living in the Fairy Angels' Care for Fairy Angels orphanage, (surnames are as according to the registry books they have for all their new admissions) when Mr. Taiburt lost his wife while giving birth to a dead child. 

He was working as an FBI agent at that time. And after two years, he resigned from the FBI and started doing cases on his own. He managed his life with his paranormal powers. Then he came in search of kids because he wanted a child of his own (and he told us that he loved his child before it was even born, but, unfortunately, it killed his dear wife, too) and saw us playing together.

Lisa was five at that time and Steph and I were three. Until that day we were orphans. But since that day, James had us under his wing and looked after us and his cases until we were sixteen and Lisa eighteen. That is this year. 

He gave each of us a home (which were brought for his kids, he planned to have three of them, it seems) and admitted us in a school – Rosemary Girls' High (actually not in that order, because he joined us to school when we were kids and gave us the houses when we became adults).

Lisa stopped schooling at seventeen and was working as a waitress at the Coffee And Coffee. And she has a car. And I am absolutely honest about me being jealous about it. Wherever and whenever we had to go she had to give us a ride. So... unfair.

[Okay. Steph here's telling me that I'm going out of the topic.]

Ah. About our powers.

At the beginning of this year, that is four months ago, James called us and told us that he has a gift for each of us. He had three pieces of rolled papers in his hand and told us to pick one each. We did as told. I opened my paper and I saw the word INVISIBLE written across it. I peeped at Lisa's paper and it had SHAPE SHIFTER written while Steph's said TELEPORTER. It was all Greek for us. What were these words and how were the gifts related to it?

"What does this mean, James?" Lisa asked him seated across from him. We were sitting in his office room.

He said, "I am going to give these powers to you. I have all these powers in me. And these are blood extracts I've taken from me in each of the phases I transformed into." 

We all but burst into laughter.

"Girls, this is no game. It's serious. You should use them to do missions and find lost people and help me with my spy work. You should not get caught. Use them wisely and do not cause trouble, girls. Understand?"

We nodded. Then he took a tray from his drawer and it had three syringes on it. One had bright blue glowing liquid in it. The other had golden yellow liquid and the third had luminous green liquid. None of them seemed like "blood" to me.

He stood up from his chair and walked to us with the tray in his hand. He stood behind Lisa and he took the yellow syringe and placed it at her nape and pressed the liquid inside her. Then she fell unconscious. Next he did the same to Steph with the one with the green blood and she too fell unconscious.

Finally he came and stood behind me with the syringe of blue liquid. I hate to admit it; but I hate injections and thinking of it makes me faint. And the pain it gives, oh my gosh! So painful!! So I sat before him shivering. But, I didn't feel any pain, just the flowing sensation inside my body. It was then that I heard James whispering foreign verses. After a few seconds everything went black.