Commencement.

[Stern]

It had been a trying spring semester. Eighteen credit hours, part time work-study, and his other obligations. He had hardly found any time for his roommates apart from awkward or forced interaction.

It came as no surprise that Stern checked out of his dorm room, but stayed around for the extra week to see his roommates walk and recieve their diplomas.

Things had gone well. They played games all day, ordered pizza, laughed, joked, and nearly got arrested by the ESU campus police. It was quite the fulfilling week.

Aside from the near constant overcast weather, things were well.

At last the day for the commencement ceremony arrived. Stern put on his usual kahki pants, and a blue button-down shirt. He waded through the crowd of parents, friends, and well-wishers as he found his way to where the graduates were being gathered together.

He found his friends, shook their hands, took some pictures for them, and then went to find a place to sit down in the stands. Stern was amazed. the basektball stadium (which held hundreds of people already), seemed to have somehow expanded. There were, to say the least, a ton of people gathered.

The mutant wandered around a bit, looking for a place to take a seat so he could best find a vantage point to see his friends. Passing by the closest door to the restrooms, Stern decided to duck inside and "ease nature" as they put it in the Old Testament. As he moved into the hallway, he saw a peculiarly dressed man talking to someone who looked much younger in a language Stern didn't understand at all.

"I wonder what that's about," he muttered as he stepped into the men's room.

[Neutron]

Aslan tugged at the collar of his jacket a little. Such a young man, starry eyed and naive.

He buried his disdain for the young man as he approached. They embraced, each giving a kiss to the side of the other's face.

"Ah Salaam Aleikum."

The youngster had a Maghreb lilt to his Arabic, possibly Moroccan or Algerian. With a knowing nod, Aslan replied in kind.

"Aleikum Salaam."

The Chechen nodded knowingly. The youngster, whom he had been introduced to only as Wahid, was some flunkie who used to code websites for Ansar al Islam before somehow getting a grant to study in America. Apparently, he was more interested now in being a mujehedeen than getting an education. Of course, his handler didn't know that Aslan himself was no longer mujehedeen. A man survives a near fatal nuclear submarine accident and you expect that he fully believes.

"Cigarette?"

He queried his sidekick in second-hand Arabic. Aslan glanced about, not feeling comfortable talking in this particular spot. Visible from the hems of his jacket sleeves, thick black gloves clenched together and relaxed.

[Stern]

Stern finished his business in the men's room, washed his hands, and stood by the automatic hand dryer. They never really did work for him. Another gentleman entered the men's room, allowing Stern a quick glance outside. The strange man and the middle-eastern looking kid were still standing, and talking.

The machine whooshed a moment more and stopped. Stern raised an eyebrow. The older man didn't look like he was here for a graduation. There was something rather off about his appearance, like the devil in The Brothers Karamazov. He was dressed for the occasion, but somehow, his clothes didn't quite do justice to it. The only thing that really seemed to be well about him were those thick gloves.

"How strange."

Stern shrugged, checked the seal on his goggles, then stepped outside into the hallway.

[Neutron]

Wahid nodded to the offer, and the two men made for the front entrance to find a place where they could have a cigarette. Wahid, eager to extoll his readiness to martyr himself, spoke aloud to himself, Allahu Akhbar - God is great.

Aslan's polite smile faded, and he squeezed the back of Wahid's neck sharply, scolding him in Arabic about saying such stupid things in public that even anglophile infidels could comprehend. Inwardly, the Chechen started to wonder if Wahid could tie his shoes without supervision, much less sneak a suicide vest into this venue.

[Stern]

Stern passed by the gloved man and his friend. The younger one said something that sounded familiar to him.

Allahu Akhbar.

He heard that before. Somewhere on the news, he imagined. It has been such a crazy semester. Stern walked into the stadium and absently descended into the stands, rolling around the odd phrase in his mind.

Allahu Akhbar.

Well, Allahu sounded an awful lot like Allah. So it was Islamic. Nothing terribly strange there. There were tons of students at ESU who were adherents of Islam. In fact, Stern had to attend a seminar on terrorism and its influence on Islamic culture for his World Religions class.

Stern had just reached his seat when it struck him like a thunderbolt. "Allahu Akhbar. God is great. Oh, man."

Stern looked around to try to find a security guard or campus police. He bolted back up the stairs, vaulting the middle hand rail to avoid people walking down.

He needed to find someone in charge now.

Those two strangely secretive people might be trying to blow up the graduation ceremony!

[Neutron]

Aslan took a walk with Wahid, lighting the young man's cigarette as they strolled. Casually, the men took a side alley, ducking out of sight, where Aslan had already planted the necessary equipment.

"Wahid, you are mujehedeen. God willing, you will strike the evil ones, but do not waste your opportunity carelessly. Your path is righteous."

He knelt down, pulling a parcel out from a storm drain. It was a plastic-wrapped vest. Removing the clear plastic, he extended the vest to the young martyr.

"Do not look for me again. I will guide you from afar."

[Stern]

Stern was having a hard time moving past the people filling the stadium seats. Both sides of the stairs were filled with people coming down. Stern balanced on the hand rail and moved along it, jumping with care from one rail to the next. It was a bit faster than shoving past the group of people, and with luck his antics would catch the attention of one of the officers he was after.

Indeed, it did work.

Stern climbed the last hand rail and found one of the ESU police waiting for him.

"What's the meaning of this, son?"

Why did all officeres have to refer to people as son?

Stern took a moment to catch his breath. "Sir, there's two people going to blow up the stadium. They went out that way last I saw them. One guy wears a trench coat and gloves, but the other guy is about my age. He was wearing kakhi pants, I think, and--"

The officer cut him off. "You know, that has got to be the wildest story I have ever heard for an excuse."

Stern's heart rate was already kind of high. He needed to calm down before his personal light got bright enough to notice amongst the lights from the stadium.

"And do you have to wear the goggles?" The officer asked.

Stern nodded politely. "Eye condition. Very nasty. Not too nice to look at, I'm afaraid."

Stern held his breath and hoped the officer wouldn't try to remove them.

"You're just full of stories today," the officer said with an incredulous chuckle.

"I majored in Creative Writing," The student replied. He hadn't, but it was the first thing he said that wasn't true.

"I'll say you did. Well, we don't want any kind of incidents here today, so next time just be patient and walk up the stairs. Enjoy the ceremony."

The officer shook hands with Stern and walked off to find another officer to tell about what just happened.

"Balls," Stern said, and scanned the area for the two terrorists.

[Neutron]

Aslan exited the alleyway, not bothering to take another glance back as he finished his cigarette. He meandered in front of the auditorium and idled casually for a few minutes while he smoked. Walid would come later, conspicuous in his desire to remain inconspicuous with such a cumbersome vest. Whether he reached his target or not didn't overly concern the Chechen fighter. He had his own task at hand.

Another breath exhaled, and Aslan quietly watched people pass. These small-minded infidels. They couldn't see past their own obsolete genomes without tripping over their heavy-handed bigotry. In another time, he would have beseeched, imshallah, for their destruction. Now, he knew better. Belief was still paramount, but the enemies of the new mankind weren't going anywhere if you weren't prepared to drag the long blade across their neck yourself.

[Stern]

Stern tried to keep collected. The campus police weren't going to be much good until they saw someone being suspicious.

He felt like a fool. Trying to find people that may or may not be trying to kill tons of people was maniacal. He'd have to try to remain discreet somehow.

The man with the trenchcoat and gloves went outside. In the spring, in that get-up he might not be too hard to find.

Stern stepped outside--directly into the smell of foreign cigarettes. Stern thought he would turn green. He had only experienced that smell from certain professors and then again from stupid high-brow white kids who thought they were better than everyone else for indulging in foreign addictives and the like.

"Follow your nose. Why can't I be finding Toucan Sam right now?"

The man didn't seem to be trying very hard to hide. He stood nearly in the middle of the courtyard just outside the big entrance to the stadium.

With no references to go by other than television, Stern decided he had basically two choices: follow the man as discretely as possible or confront the man outright.

Causing a scene would probably get the cops after himself more than the other guy, so he could only sift through the crowd and try to stay where the guy wouldn't see him. Even if he did, Stern had to make it look like he wasn't watching the guy.

"What a day."

[Neutron]

Suddenly, he had a visitor. A young yankee boy with goggles on his face was making conversation with him. Caught mid stride, Aslan exhaled through his nose. Might as well go along with it, he still had time enough.

"Yes it is good day."

Flicking a bit of ash that fluttered down to the step below him like snow, he regarded the youngster.

"You are is student with school?"

The age seemed right, though his goggles seemed to be an oddity. Perhaps a sight impairment. But then again, perhaps more? A brother perhaps? Perhaps not. Even the gifted weren't necessarily trustworthy. Certainly not here and now.

[Stern]

Man, I stink at this sneaking around thing, he thought. Then again, given my powers, I really shouldn't be trying to be sneaky at all.

Stern kept the twist of anxiety out of his voice and features. The goggles helped mostly.

"Yes sir, I am. Some of my friends are graduating today. I still have another two years or so."

Stern decided to try his hand at subtle questions. He was pretty good at that. Granted, he only really used it to figure out which of his roommates ate his grandmother's cookies and the like, but it might be helpful here as well.

"Do you have a child or family member graduating today?"

Stern watched the sky. It had been raining the past few days and the sky was still overcast. At least most of the storm was over and it stopped being so dark out. With any luck the sun would show itself and Stern's glow would fade into the sunlight.

[Neutron]

"A cousin."

He dropped the cigarette to his feet, snuffing it out with his shoe. Regarding his visitor, he afforded a small smile.

"Well I am must be going to find my seat then."

He extended a hand to the young man.

"Good days."

[Stern]

Stern nodded and replied with a "Good day" and shook the man's hand.

Scary as hell. The guy was so calm. Maybe he really was just there for the ceremony?

Stern turned to watch him go and decided to keep his eye on Neutron just in case.

The man might be harder to spot out in the myriad seats, but he couldn't stay too close. Stern waited for him to step through the doors before he went inside himself.

[Neutron]

Aslan made his way to the upper deck, and to a seat that he'd already cordoned with a baseball cap that he'd laid in his place. It had just the right vantage point. He shuffled through a row of spectators, excusing himself demurely with broken english as he retrieved his cap, and took his seat. He looked relaxed, flipping through the comencement program with disinterest. Outside, if things were going as planned, Walid should be making his move at the chime of the clock. It was still a few minutes too early. More people needed to be inside.

[Stern]

Stern watched the man move through the crowd and to the stairs where the nosebleed seats were. Stern followed, watching the man descend into the rows of seats and sit down.

Stern wanted to keep an eye on him, but he also knew he needed to be watching for the other person too.

Was that a ball cap? Stern hoped the man would wear it, but it seemed the man was more savvy than that.

"I need to mark him somehow."

Stern paused and leaned on the small wall that kept people from falling into the people seated in the last row. "White light might help, but if I focus the beam too much it'll get hot and he'll move."

Stern started to go with red, but people might get annoyed and turn to look at him. He needed to avoid detection.

As Stern continued to mull over his options, the University's clock tower bell tolled the hour. The ceremony was going to start in a few seconds.

Feeling a slight panic, and lacking any better ideas, Stern focused a small circle of white light on the man's shoulder. Maybe people would think it was the ceiling lights and not think much more about it.

Stern didn't have time to think about how strange he looked, pointing at apparently nothing. He was too busy looking for the other guy.

[Neutron]

From where Aslan sat, he pulled what looked to be a TV remote control from his inner jacket pocket. Briefly glancing it over, he returned it to his coat. Still too early.

Outside, Walid chain smoked. He discarded one cigarette after lighting the next with the tip. The clock was chiming. His time was here. He'd spend his last moments on earth before Paradise enjoying a cool cigarette. Then he would take his place as a martyr.

Sweat beaded on his forehead. He felt as if he was looking at himself from outside his own body. Was this really about to happen? All of his years, coming to this decision.

He discarded the cigarette, steeling himself for his trial. He walked briskly to the front doors of the auditorium, and pulled his jacket off, holding a garage door opener over his head with both hands.

"There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet!"

He closed his eyes and pressed the button. He expected to depart this world in an instant.

It did not happen.

[Stern]

Across the stadium there was a big commotion. People were screaming and running away from someone. Stern looked harder. It was the guy!

Stern flared, suddenly becoming brighter than the floodlights in the ceiling.

People around him covered their eyes and the people in the seats turned to see what was making such a bright light.

Stern could see decently well thanks to the goggles he wore, but still there was an issue as he kept looking over where the terrorist was. The sounds were a dead giveaway as to what happened.

The bomb hadn't gone off. There was nothing to fear from him. But what was the other guy about?

Stern, still burning brightly, took a step back. He got a running start, jumped on top of the small retaining wall and leapt into the stands. He'd probably regret it later, but it was the fastest way he could think of to close the distance on the other guy.

[Neutron]

Aslan was preoccupied with the control to the dirty bomb he'd painstakingly smuggled into the auditorium, so that by the time he caught Stern approaching him, it was too late to brace himself. The kid tumbled into him forcefully, causing the control to fly from his hands.

[Stern]

People recoiled in horror as Stern made his landing. For a moment they thought the cieling was coming down on them. Without stopping to realize what had happened, the bystanders quickly started scrambling over chairs and each other to get away from the commotion.

Stern wasn't exactly sure what to do from there, but luckily adrenaline was on his side. He made the best fist he could and struck Neutron across the face and slammed him against the chair.

"What's the deal? Where's the real bomb?"

[Neutron]

Aslan rose to his feet with ease. He gave the kid credit for his boldness, but he was just that. He smiled, wiping some blood from his mouth with his glove.

"Look behind."

The scoreboard at the far end of the auditorium was massive, and easily large enough to conceal a man-sized device behind the flatscreen video. Within that device, water deadened the radiological footprint of a shaped charge explosive coupled with one hundred pounds of ball bearings. It was all set to an infrared switch.

A switch which lay on the ground behind Aslan.