Chosen by Fate, Rejected by the Alpha

POST FIGHT AT THE STADIUM/DEATH OF THE COLONEL     

**The Super Non-Humans**     

While thirty year old Holly Jones was watching the news, she couldn't help but remember that fateful day from just before Christmas. It had taken over the entire world, in a manner of speaking. That day in December she had been at work, working on a spreadsheet for her accounting firm when it happened. Her entire screen had been taken over by this broadcast, and there was no way to turn it off. Each and every computer and TV in the entire building had started to broadcast it, and so did the cellphones.     

The announcement was that there were nonhumans living among them. That had been a little terrifying to hear, but then the words had continued. They had been here with us all along. We had lived together for thousands of years, and they weren't out to hurt anyone. All they wanted was peace.     

That initial fear that Holly had felt dissipated almost at once. She figured that, with half the world likely not being human, it meant that half the people in her office probably weren't human. And if that was the case, then there was nothing to worry about, because she had worked there for almost ten years with no issues at all.      

In truth, that initial report only made her accept and understand the oddities of the people around her. Perhaps that lady in HR that always had purple hair wasn't dying it, maybe it was her real hair color. And maybe, the reason she still looked the same after all this time, was because she was immortal.     

Yes, these things and more all passed through Holly's mind as she learned about the world around her. She even went to the events that were held in the city around her. She wasn't in Colorado Springs, where the announcement had taken place. No, she was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, several hundreds of miles away. And even with all this distance between them, Holly was sure that there were nonhumans all over the place.     

As the news displayed again and again what had happened at that stadium, the same one where Trinity Gray had announced what they were, Holly thought about the way things had happened. There was an army of humans that were after the nonhumans. The nonhumans had been running around the world trying to stop those people and protect everyone. And Trinity even protected the people that were there, including the ones that had been there to paint her in a negative light. Hell, if it had been Holly there, in Trinity's shoes, she might have let that truck squish them all.     

It was clear to see that the nonhumans were there to protect and save people.     

"Did you ever notice how they're like superheroes?" Holly asked her coworker as she watched the news in the middle of the workday. She wasn't the only one either, they had all ceased working, bosses included. The news was more important at the moment.     

"I hadn't thought about it before, but now that you mention it, yeah, I think that you're right." Ryan said without taking his eyes off the screen. "They are just trying to live their lives, but they don't want to see people getting hurt either. They put themselves out there and do all that they can to protect people."     

"Yeah, they're amazing."     

At that moment, Holly looked across the room at a group of people that were huddled together, whispering while they watched the news. They were some of the ones in her office, on her specific floor, that were not human. There were six of them, on their floor of twenty. Not quite half but it was also just one floor.     

Holly had learned that they were a warlock, a feline, and four wolves. They were all a part of Trinity's kingdom, and they were all just like the rest of them. If they hadn't told her directly, Holly would have never known that they weren't human.     

"I think that just about all of the nonhumans are superheroes." Gretta said as she looked at the same group. They looked up and blushed at her words, but they didn't say anything.     

"They are." Holly agreed. "They have the courage to do what they need to in the face of opposition. That is a superhero in my mind. And no one can change my mind about that." They were all happy at the words they were hearing. Almost everyone in the office had been accepting of them. And the ones that hadn't been had quit when the company refused to fire them.     

"To the superheroes, here and there in Colorado. We appreciate you all, and everything that you do for us." Holly led the group in showing their appreciation for what had happened lately.     

*~~!~~**~~!~~**~~!~~*     

**They Are Still Monsters**     

Harvey Olsen had seen the news back in December, and he had hated the idea of nonhumans from the very start. However, he wasn't the type to do anything about it. He wasn't one of the moronic PAWS, VAMPs, or DOEs that were hellbent on taking over the world. No, he would just voice his displeasure with those monsters if he even came near them. He didn't want them here, but he was non-confrontational.     

He wasn't a supporter of the extremist groups at all, and neither was he a supporter of the nonhumans. He should have been one of the indifferent middle people that didn't care one way or another. And perhaps he was, partially. As long as they didn't come near him, then he didn't care what they did.     

When he had seen that other news report, the one where that monster queen faced off against the human monster that led his group of radicals, he was completely disgusted.     

"The humans are just as much monsters as the nonhumans are." He had shouted at the TV in the bar. Harvey Olsen was an older man, nearing the midpoint of his seventies and that meant that he was too old to change his ways now. "They are all monsters. All of them." He had shaken his head at them all. "That monster queen is going to destroy her people, but not the same as the man that just tried to kill his entire group of people. It's ridiculous."     

In a way, Harvey hated them all, but his words were going to affect more than just his mood or his opinions. He had no way of knowing at that moment that there was a young man that was listening in. A man that was going to hear him talking about the nonhumans being monsters. And that young man was going to take those words to heart, letting them feed into his hatred and misunderstandings. They were still monsters. They were all still monsters.      

**Cleaning House**     

Things were tough in Devon's office after the big reveal. There was a split of people that were on either side of the fence. Some of them were all for nonhumans and didn't care about them being there, Devon was on that side of the split. Then there was the other, and much smaller group, that wanted to get rid of all the nonhumans in the office.     

It might have been the fact that there were so many nonhumans in the office, that the pro side had significantly outnumbered the anti side, but that couldn't have been all. Devon had known that most of the humans that he was friends with in the office approved of the nonhumans being there. They had done their work, there had been no issues with them at all, and no one would have known had they not outed themselves for transparency purposes. It was just that smaller group of humans that wanted to keep things pure in the office.     

When the words pure and clean kept getting thrown out during company meetings, Devon had wondered if those people had intentionally or inadvertently quoted that old popular children's book series. I mean, if you wanted to talk about pure or clean blood, then there likely wasn't a person in existence that could fit that bill, aside from someone that wasn't human anyway.     

Now that Devon was watching the second broadcast, not a global interruption like the last one but still something that was important, he couldn't help but sigh in relief. Those other people, the pure wannabes, had kicked up enough of a fuss that the weekly department meetings were taken to the higher management, and that was where they met their downfall.     

As it turned out, this company was a subsidiary of one that was owned and operated by none other than Reece and Trinity Gray. That meant that half, or possibly more, of the higher up management was not human, and the human resources department was entirely nonhuman. So, when those idiots took their complaints to the top, they were immediately shown the bottom. And by that, Devon meant that they had been shown the door when they were fired and escorted off of the property.     

Another reason for the relief that he felt was because Devon was happy to see a relatively peaceful ending to the drama that had been broadcast for so long over the news. Trinity hadn't stopped that Colonel asshole from killing himself, but she had protected so many other people, as Devon and all the others had known that she would. The day had ended smoothly.     

**They Need to be Stopped**     

The man was watching the news, and the carnage that was taking place. That man wouldn't have died, and that army wouldn't have been formed, if it weren't for the nonhumans that were in the world. This man, as he watched the broadcast that was being streamed live in the middle of the restaurant, felt a wave of anger and rage.     

"They went about it the wrong way." The man growled under his breath to the others in the booth with him. "You don't start a war and attack all at once. You pluck them from the vine, one at a time." There were murmurs of agreement from the men that were all around him as they listened to him.      

"Yeah, take them out one by one, then they won't notice."     

"No one will see that coming. I am sure that we would be able to do a better job than that moron."     

"He was a fucking cop! A member of the NSA? Seriously? I have little faith in the government being able to protect us with people like that in charge. Half of the government is telling us to accept those beasts, and the others are so inept that they can't kill them." The man continued his tirade to his friends as they watched the news. "That Colonel was a moron, but I know that we can fix this. They won't be able to get away from us."     

They continued to speak as they watched the people in the diner around them. The leader of the men was wondering just how many of them, and which ones, were not human. He saw a slender man with tattoos and bright green hair.     

"There is one now." He grinned at the man. "We could take him out right now, if there weren't so many witnesses."     

"Yeah, witnesses are bad. We can't be caught." Another man chuckled at the thought. "We need to have a plan, a process. Then we can do what we need to."      

"Agreed." The leader said as he looked at the green haired man's bag and saw that it was for the university. "We need a plan and to focus on it."     

The group of men never took their eyes off of that green haired man while he ate. And that man never knew how close he was to someone that wanted to kill him. Was the man actually human or nonhuman? No one at the diner would ever know that for sure, but that still didn't matter to the others. They had already made up their minds about him the moment they saw him.