DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Mutant X'. They're not my property.
Another iron bar fell from the floor beneath her. Griping the rusty steel fence tightly with her fingers, Emma could feel the rising heat from the roaring flame on the ground. It had contributed to the drops of sweat falling down from her skin. Turning her head to the left, she saw the gap where only a few minutes ago was an extension to the steel bridge. The gap was too wide for the Psionic to attempt a jump over it. Swallowing, Emma then turned the eyes to the right. Only two thin steel bars had remained there but the distance between them was too wide and the bars were too thin to be tried and walked on. And then of course was the heat coming from the fire which appeared as an extra and an undesirable obstacle. "Why did I chase him through this bridge?!" Emma thought as she let her eyes travel around the space available to her of the abandoned factory with hopes she could find a safer way out.
"Help!!!" she then screamed at the top of her lunges. Someone had to be passing by this decaying piece of architectural garbage. "Somebody, help me!!" she tried once more. Her breathing became more rapid as the only sound that she could hear was that of the flames beneath her and some pieces of metal that would fall from the sides. "Who am I kidding, no one can hear me!" Emma told herself and glanced at the ceiling were four broken windows, were releasing the continuing black smoke from the flames; if it hadn't been for them and perhaps some other open passages, the Psionic would have suffocated. But the smoke still had an effect on her lunges as it entered inside and hard coughs came out of her while trying to replace it with some oxygen.
When she could continue breathing, Emma glanced at her ring. She knew she shouldn't have come here alone. Lifting her hand, she suddenly felt the surface beneath her feet starting to shake. This caused her to return her hand on the fence and hold on to it tightly while praying the shaking would cease. The vibrations went through her body, increasing the beating of her heart. "No. Not now. Please stop," she mumbled and as if someone had heard her, the shaking stopped. Now, if it could only remain that way, at least until she could get out of here. The sweating continued and that was soon accompanied with a slight dizziness. Emma lifted her hand again. "Brennan..… Adam! Anyone!" she wanted to shout into that ring as she was beginning to feel even more frightened by what she was surrounded.
"Emma? What is it?" Jesse's voice was heard.
"Jesse, I need help! Please!" she begged.
"I have you, we're on our way!" he responded.
"Hurry! I don't have much time!" she warned and gripped the fence once more. All her options of escaping were now drained. A moment after, her body again felt the vibrations of the shaking. The Psionic closed her eyes and started praying for her friends to arrive in time.
*******
She had gotten a message earlier in the day from Don, some short low-life, a rotten example of a human being but the only person who was able to get a very rare drug that was of need to Adam. He had warned her to come alone or other wise he wouldn't show up and give her the drug. Emma was the only member of Mutant X who Don communicated with. Emma had felt uneasy by this, but she decided to go anyway.
An hour after receiving the message, Emma had found herself in an old and abandoned factory. Being on the second floor, she then looked at the bridge; a flat wooden board was covering a piece of the bridge's surface where an original steel floor was missing. She carefully stepped on it and walked slowly, glancing at it and then at Don and hearing the small cracking noises with each step. Once she finally reached the steel and more secure part of the floor she pulled out her hand. "Give me the bottle," she said.
The short man walked backwards.
"Come on, Don! We don't have the entire day! Don't make me force you!" she threatened.
Don shook his head.
Emma didn't like that answer. "Give me the bottle!" she said slowly and loudly.
"I'm not going to that bridge!" he said, gripping on the black bottle as if his life had depended on it.
Emma saw that she didn't have any other choice. Focusing her power, she was ready to force Don into stepping on the bridge and handing her the drug when the cracking noise of the board behind her, caught Emma's attention, suddenly distracting her. Quickly turning her head, she noticed the board breaking and then falling down, until a couple of seconds later its collapse was heard from the bottom. Returning her gaze to Don, Emma was once again distracted as something else happened on the ground. "Fire?!" A pinch of panic was felt inside as she saw the speed with which the fire was spreading down there on that black surface. Sharply raising her head, she shouted: "What the fuck did you do?"
But Don didn't respond, only jumped from his spot and ran away.
"Wait!" Emma began running after him when a huge part of the bridge's floor in front of her suddenly collapsed. "That asshole!" She cursed. Looking up, he was nowhere in sight. Emma took a few steps back and after a 360 degree spin, she gripped on the fence.
*******
"Hurry..…" she pleaded quietly as she felt scared but the dizziness increased and soon afterwards she fainted.
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When she woke up, Emma found herself lying on the ground close to some rocks. Hearing some whispers, she felt her face resting on some soft fabric and a beating of a heart behind it.
"Emma?" hearing a voice, she looked up meeting Brennan's eyes.
"Oh, the cavalry is here," Emma mumbled as she tried to raise her head.
"How are you feeling?" Jesse, crouching in front of her, asked.
"Like I've been sucking down on a damn chimney," and coughed.
"Woo..… easy..…easy," Brennan held her shoulders, helping her to lean forward.
Sitting up, she grabbed her head and breathed deeply, letting the clean air enter her lungs. She felt a small headache appear. "Ouch..…" Shutting her eyes, she held her head and soon after felt a big cough coming on.
When she was finished, the Psionic looked around and found herself a mile away from the now burning building. Feeling a bit messed up now, Emma wasn't sure if she had escaped the fire by herself or someone did help her. Her memory didn't obey her. "Fuck..…" she sat on the ground a while longer until she saw Jesse take her arm, helping the young mutant to stand up.
"Are you ok?" Jesse asked her when he and Brennan saw the dirt on her face.
"Yeah, just having this small headache." She took in some more air. "Sure took you guys a while to arrive," she then said.
"It was only fifteen minutes, Em," Brennan responded.
"Well in those fifteen minutes I could've easily died!" she shook her head.
"That's what we thought when we found you on that bridge up there," Jesse told her.
So they did safe her. Emma felt relived.
Jesse looked over at the burning factory. "So, what happened here?" he asked.
"Don said he had the drug that Adam needed and..…"
"Don't tell me; he told you to come to this abandoned..…" Brennan pointed with his arm towards the building, "factory, alone, so he could give you the drug, right?"
"Yeah," Emma was close to being surprised.
Brennan sighed, shaking his head. "Then what happened?"
"Well, I..…" they started walking towards the Helix, "found him in there and had to chaise him up this bridge when a fire broke out and before I knew it, I was stuck on this bridge without the chance to escape, with Don gone!"
"And after that?" Jesse asked.
"I don't know. I don't really remember anything afterwards, except that I felt dizzy and afterwards, I woke up..… there." She pointed behind her.
"You actually trusted that guy? You? A telempath, even!"
Emma glared at him. "Bren!"
"Em, I'm happy you're alright and everything but how could you trust that low-life?"
This question caused them both to stop.
"I'll admit that I did get odd feelings about this but I had to get that drug," she replied.
Brennan sighed annoyingly. "Did he at least have the drug with him?"
Emma nodded.
"Huh, at least something was ok."
Emma could sense him being displeased by her action as it had nearly cost the Psionic her life. "God bless him for worrying, but does he have to be such a pain about it??" she asked herself while looking at him.
"And you didn't get it….."
"No, sorry, he got away."
Brennan gave a bitter laugh. "Perfect, you put your life in danger for something which didn't even turn out to be successful," he collapsed his arms.
"Hey, I wasn't anticipating that!"
"Em! You're a terrible liar," he told her.
"Oh right, I forgot. You're the king when it comes to that!"
"Guys!" Jesse had to shout over to his friends to stop them from starting a feud and he succeeded when Brennan and Emma turned their heads towards him. "Let's just go home, ok??"
Exchanging looks Emma and Brennan continued walking. "You need to stop being so gullible, Em," Brennan then said, not looking at her.
"I'm not gullible."
"You are."
"I'm not!"
"You are"
"I'm not!"
"You are!"
Jesse rolled his eyes as the Molecular picked up his pace to distance himself from those kids behind him. He had a feeling that they would continue going on like this through the entire trip. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.
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Feeling exhausted for today, Emma only wanted to take a quick shower and head to bed. Their silly little discussion had lasted the entire day, which quite understandably got on the others' nerves. Shalimar had threatened them that she would land them both in comas if they didn't just grow up and shut up; and Brennan and Emma even went at it in the lab but were chased away by Adam who had been busy, studying some blue gem that was found a few days ago.
When the first wish was fulfilled, Emma dried off her hair and took a comb. While brushing her red locks, Emma snorted. "Me? Gullible? The nerve!" as she was saying the last word, she must've pulled down too hard as she felt a pain from that part of her scull. "Ouch! Ah!" Touching the place for a while, Emma put the comb down and turned around, heading towards her bed.
Looking at it, she had to smile. The Psionic was proud of how well she could make up her bed every morning. "It's close to perfection," she thought and giggled before spreading the sheets and jumping on the bed.
Sinking into the comfortable pillows, Emma stared in front of her for awhile. She thought about how Brennan treated her today. It wasn't anything unusual or different but it had still entered her head, remaining there for some time, until she felt her tiredness kick in again. Emma reached for the nightstand. "Oh I pity the girl who marries that man one day," she said quietly and turned sideways, placing her head in the right position so it would once again sink into the softness of the pillows. Emma closed her eyes. "Married? Brennan?" she giggled, "yeah, that'll be the day!" making a joke for herself Emma surrendered to her sleep.
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She didn't know what time came but Emma felt her sleepiness leaving her. She did however feel that the room got lighter. "Ah, yeah….. it's morning already..… when did it come?" Emma opened her eyes and glanced at the clock: 7:26 in the morning. "Per-..…" her senses suddenly rose up. There was someone else in the room, she felt. That was confirmed very shortly after when she felt an arm placing itself on her waist. Looking at it, she trailed the arm up and her eyes opened in such a shock that as Emma quickly pulled away, it didn't leave her enough room, making her fall on the floor.
That thump seemed to have disturbed his sleep as Brennan lifted his head. "Mm…" he muttered something, looking at the direction where the noise came from. His eyes tried to adjust to the weak natural light in the room as he kept widening and squeezing them; when he noticed Emma sitting on the floor with one of the bed sheets around her, staring at him with shock in her eyes and on her face.
"Good morning, gorgeous," his rough voice was heard as he showed a tamed smile.
Emma watched him with a slightly opened mouth. It nearly seemed like he must've slept in the nude, when..… Emma rapidly looked down at her self and noticed that she was naked! "Shit!" She hastily wrapped the bed sheet around her small body as best as she could while sitting.
"What are you doing here??" not knowing whether to be angry or to just give into the shock, Emma was momentarily unable to stand up.
Brennan jerked his head back. "That's a nice way to wish someone a good morning," he said.
Emma tried to see if perhaps he had been drunk but she couldn't pick up anything unusual; everything seemed in order in there..… oddly enough.
"Brennan, what are you doing in my bed??" she demanded to know.
"Honey, are you ok?" he asked.
"Honey?" Emma sprinted. "This is not funny!" she didn't like it when he would pull some prank like that. But he had never gone to this extreme.
"Em, honey?" he called her.
"Third time, Bren, what are you doing in my bed??" It was embarrassing enough that both of them were nude in her eyes but in the same bed?!
"Aren't a wife and husband supposed to sleep in the same bed?" he then asked.
"What??" This news totally blew her off her tracks. She wanted to see if he was playing with her but no, the Elemental was completely honest. Taking a step back, Emma then managed to finally notice the room. It was different; not only bigger but the colors of the walls were changed, the pictures, the closets..…"What's going on here?" she asked herself.
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