Season One
First UK Air Date : 17 October 2001
First US Air Date : 06 October 2001
Terrified young Emma deLauro (Lauren Lee Smith) rushes through the crowd at a chic nightclub. As she collides with the handsome Brennan Mulwray (Victor Webster), their eyes meet and Brennan immediately senses something extraordinary about Emma. Before he is able to speak, however, she disappears.
Outside, Jesse Kilmartin (Forbes March) mysteriously materializes out of nowhere and guides Emma to safety as a black sedan chases her down a dark alley. As the vehicle races towards him, he takes a deep breath, alters his body density and phases out, allowing the car to pass straight through him. When the agents in hot pursuit emerge from the car, the striking Shalimar Fox (Victoria Pratt) pounces from above and beats them unconscious. Jesse suddenly sees two more agents rushing towards Emma and alters his body density again, this time becoming impervious and blocking the bullets meant for her.
Utterly confused, Emma turns to run. A calm mysterious stranger, Adam (John Shea), blocks her path. Adam takes Emma's hand and tells her she is among friends and that all her questions will soon be answered. He then leads her, along with Jesse and Shalimar, to a Stealth VTOL aircraft and they fly off into the night.
The aircraft lands inside Stormking Mountain and the group enters what is called Sanctuary, a Zen garden and high-tech wonderland. Adam informs Emma that her assailants are security agents for Genomex, a biotech firm where he used to work as chief biogeneticist. Adam tells Emma that she, like Shalimar, Jesse and hundreds of others, were unsuspecting subjects of covert experiments in human genetics that went awry. As a result of this genetic engineering, these new mutants produced by Genomex have extraordinary powers. Adam explains to Emma that the agents were after her because of her "telempathic" powers, which allow her to sense and influence the feelings of others.
The next day, Mason Eckhart (Tom McCamus), the security chief of Genomex, visits the head of Genomex, Dr. Paul Breedlove (Cedric Smith). Knowing that Breedlove feels guilty and is ready to expose their covert operation to the press, Eckhart and he discuss the possibility of making reparations for the atrocities they've committed. That night, as Breedlove prepares his speech for the press, he's confronted by Eckhart and his right-hand man, Frank Thorne (Douglas O'Keeffe), who is himself a Child of Genomex. Telling Breedlove that he should have kept his mouth shut, Thorne uses his mutant powers kill him.
Meanwhile, Brennan and his two longtime buddies, Tony Reese (Matthew MacFadzean) and Michael Azzarello (Sean Bell), secretly meet with Brad Carter (Kevin Hicks) who has hired them to steal $10 million in treasury certificates. As they enter the Hickman & Wrightson Securities Agency, Brennan zaps a bolt of electricity that surges from his fingertips to short out the cameras and alarm. The three pull off the dangerous and complicated heist and narrowly escape.
Emma is now at a safe house for new mutants where Adam has taken her, but is in denial about the fact that she has special powers. When Shalimar arrives, she hands Emma new identity information. Another new mutant, Allison (Ingrid Hart), then drives Emma to the marina where she is to take a boat out of town. But when Emma sees two agents approaching her, she flees in Allison's car, prompting Adam to initiate an immediate search.
Back at Genomex, the unscrupulous Eckhart assembles the staff and blames Breedlove's death on the genetic "anomalies" their experiments have produced. He proclaims that for the safety of the world, he's instituting the Genetic Security Agency in order to hunt down and capture them. In the meantime, Shalimar spots Emma on a holographic map grid and sets out to find her as Emma makes her way back to the nightclub where she and Brennan met. Finding him there, Emma joins him for a drink and they begin to confide in each other, revealing that they each have special abilities. When Emma goes to the ladies room, Thorne arrives and approaches Brennan, telling him he's about to make him the offer of a lifetime. When Emma returns, she has a telempathic vision of Brennan being strangled, which he's able to pick up. Brennan and Emma race out of the club with Thorne close behind just as Shalimar arrives. Brennan is able to stop Thorne temporarily with an electrical bolt, but he and Emma are soon surrounded by a group of agents. Suddenly, Shalimar and Jesse burst on the scene and struggle with the agents, but it's not until Adam appears that Thorne and his men decide to back off.