MIRAGE: DELETED SCENES by CapitaineCartoon
SUMMARY: These pages contain deleted scenes from my stories Mirage: Escape from Nomanisan, and Mirage: Countdown to Eternity.
RATING: For older readers. They are rated T (the old PG-13) for some dark realistic violence, mature subject, mild language and sexuality.
DISCLAIMER: Pixar and Disney own Mirage and the Incredibles (sigh)... This is fan fiction to share on the World Wide Web for the purpose of expressing non-profit creativity. Please don't sue me, thank you. I have no money anyway.
From Chapter Five of Mirage: Escape from Nomanisan – The Well of Souls
Summary: Mirage has entered a dark tunnel that she knows will lead her to the core of the island, the perilous detour her only chance of escape from Captain Saunders and his men. Along the path, Mirage has an unexpected encounter...
The sound of water dripping from above resonated against the tunnel's humid walls, disturbing for a moment the stillness that surrounded Mirage. Sometimes, a cool drop of liquid landed on Mirage's head, annoying her, and she brushed it off her hair with a swift hand. Onward she walked, in total darkness for a while already. It did not matter for her, as she could see her surrounding as she would in daylight. Night vision was one of the super powers she particularly was grateful of possessing: Without it, the imagination left to roam too freely in such a ghastly place would be tempted to create too many vicious creatures... By looking around, Mirage felt reassured she could at least keep her own demons at bay, the real ones lurking around her being enough. She shivered as she saw a centipede – grown enormous from the tropical climate-, creep up from the murky water that stagnated around her. It stopped for a moment, lifted its head up, its antennae groping around in the darkness, as it had sensed her presence. It quickly slithered back into a crack in the cement. Mirage instinctively squeezed her knife tighter.
Mirage stopped. For the first time the tunnel had started to edge upward now. Even though that did not change her situation, she felt compelled to see that as a sign of hope. But as she looked ahead, another wave of anxiety passed over her. Mirage had arrived at an intersection. The tunnel had multiple openings now, each leading in a different direction. As she looked inside each one, she could not see any sign that told her which way to go. For a moment, Mirage felt panic overwhelm her. She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Mirage looked for clues, a sign, anything that could lead her in the right direction. She stepped in one of the openings. If she held her breath, she could faintly hear a distant humming, a sound so weak, she could have imagined it. She walked forward in the embranchment she had chosen. She heard it now. A distinct, low frequency humming. Mirage's hope had returned. She walked briskly again.
She had reached a sharp corner now. As she walked around it, Mirage suddenly stopped in her tracks and gasped. A man lay there immobile, blocking her path. Mirage lifted her knife, but after a second, put it down as she knew she would not need it.
She kneeled beside the body, to further examine him. He was a Super. The man's suit, baring a symbol Mirage had never seen before, had been ripped to shreds by what appeared to be large knives. He was bloodied and bruised. Mirage had no idea how he could have come here. She shivered as she looked closer. The man had a gaping wound in his lower abdomen, a large gash that exposed the internal organs, the smell telling her they were already badly infected. Mirage leaned over. Suddenly and without warning, the man's eyes opened and he reached out to her, grabbing her shoulder by chance. Mirage screamed as she backed away suddenly, stumbling backwards.
"Help me," the man said, his voice faint. "Help me, please". He kept his arm lifted in the air, trembling. He could not see her.
Mirage crawled over to him. "It's all right," she said. "I'm here."
Mirage grabbed the man by the shoulders and lifted him, to prop him against the wall and out of the dirty water. He moaned as she moved him.
"Hang on," she said. She moved her hand above his gaping wound and spread her fingers. Sensing this, the man reached out and feebly grabbed her wrist.
"It's all right," he said. "I can sense what you are trying to do. But I'm afraid it's too late for me now..."
His voice was so weak, Mirage had to lean in to listen. His grip on her wrist became weaker.
"You will have to go on," he said. "You will have to go to the bottom." Mirage listened. "Syndrome," he said, "Syndrome did not know... They used him. They are... using the island... his money..." He gasped and coughed. "You have to stop them." He was shaking now. "They are building..." He quivered again. "They are building", he repeated. "You must destroy it, you must..."
Mirage leaned forward. She held his hand. "Destroy what? Where is it? Tell me, please."
"Down. Down in the core," the man whispered.
The man had difficulty breathing now, his breath shallow and rapid. "You have to go down," he pleaded to her. "Millions. Millions could die... You have to destroy it."
The man suddenly whimpered faintly. His body became rigid for a moment, and then went limp as he let out his final breath.
Mirage looked at him for a moment. She could now hear the distant humming again. She gently let his hand down, closed his still open eyes.
Mirage got up. She took a deep breath and started walking again, towards the sound coming from far below.