By Chya
The buildings flew by as Aluino headed downtown, determined not to fail his master under any circumstances; his pack was depending on him. Some part of him tracked his peripheral vision, but his focus was fixed unwaveringly on the derelict building that apparently housed the disk that was his target.
It came into sight and he picked up his pace, his senses alert, poised for attack, defence, whatever steps necessary to bring his prey, target, home.
The loose and cracked old door barely slowed Aluino as he barrelled in, skidding to a stop in the dull empty space. Dust motes from his sudden entrance danced in the weak sunlight that filtered through the rough boards across what had once been the windows. Sniffing cautiously, there was only dust and mildew and - and something almost hidden. A sweet scent. Maybe a perfume or a cologne.
A sound, a creak, a footfall so light a normal human would not have heard it. But he wasn't human and the sound marked someone's presence as surely as if they'd announced themselves.
With a feral, toothy grin he crept towards the stairs, keeping low to the ground, his brown eyes blazing gold.
His foot fell on the rotted rug before the lowest step. The wood creaked. A soft snap and Aluino knew his mistake as the metal bars slammed down to kill the last fibres of the rug.
Trapped!
One such as he could never be trapped. It quite simply went against his nature and he would fight to his death to be free. With a snarl he threw himself at the unyielding adamantium until the sickly sweet scent he'd barely sensed before viciously assaulted his sensitive nose. He twisted round to see two hooded ones, dark and silent behind him.
They each raised a hand, the air sparked green pain and he knew no more.
*****
Brennan squinted as he tried to get his head around exactly what Adam was saying. "So, this CD Jesse and Emma have gone after has data on how to rewrite someone's, uh… nervous system?"
"Something like that," Adam nodded encouragingly as Emma rolled her eyes. "According to Proxy Blue, someone, somewhere has taken the time to learn how to not only reprogram a person's brain, but also how to take over their neurological system remotely, almost all but autonomous function. It would be bad enough if done to a normal human, but just think of the potential damage - both literal and political - if mutants were subjected to this."
Brennan let the words wash over him and tried to find their meaning by sliding between them. He wasn't stupid by any means, but sometimes Adam had a knack of making him feel like a complete retard.
Shalimar leaned towards him and loudly whispered, "You get to go along for the ride while someone else plays with your sparky thing."
And when Shal said things like that, he felt really stupid. "I know that," he told her. "I'm not stupid you know."
"I know," Shalimar smiled, "but you looked kinda, um, tired. What were you and Jesse up to last night anyway? I turned in about four and you guys were still out."
Brennan looked at the ceiling and considered pleading the fifth, but settled for diversionary tactics instead. "Just teaching the kid how to play pool, is all. And anyway, if I'm the expert on discreet pick ups, why I am stuck here and not out there with Jesse and Emma?"
"Because they're just scouting. Seeing what it's all about," said Adam placatingly. "You're our ace in the hole which any guards, etcetera, won't have seen before. But while this is relatively risk free for Jesse and Emma, given their skills and the fact that they're not actually going to take anything, for you the risk factor will be far higher. And I'm quite simply not prepared to take that kind of risk with any of you until we know exactly what we face and can minimise those risks to an acceptable level."
"Right," Brennan snorted as he was almost sure he caught Shalimar smothering a smile. "Well," he muttered, "I still think it's not right and it's not fair."
"Come on." The blonde mutant ushered the elemental towards the kitchen, leaving Adam to monitor Jesse and Emma. "You'll have your turn soon enough."
"Yeah, I know, but…"
*****
"There has to be more to it than that," Emma giggled as she looked over Jesse's shoulder at the small, anonymous building nestled between its larger industrial neighbours. "I mean, you spent, like, nearly twelve hours showing the big lug how to play pool?"
"It's true." Jesse flashed her a quick smile. "Jump in my head and have a look if you don't believe me."
Emma tilted her head in thought a moment. "Nah. I'll just let you have your little secret. You'll tell eventually."
"Ya think?"
"I know. So, what do you think about this place?"
"I think it's a waste of time checking it out. We should just go in with Brennan, get the disk and get out. Security is nowhere near as tight as Proxy Blue made out." Jesse paused before turning back to the brunette. "Did it seem to you like Proxy Blue was kinda off somehow?"
"You mean that she didn't sound like herself? That the snarky comments were missing?"
"Yeah," nodded Jesse, thoughtfully, "something like that."
"Maybe. Or maybe she just has a conscience."
"That'll be the day," Jesse snorted. "You coming?"
It really was far too easy for Emma to send the one dozy old guard to sleep. The security seemed to be primarily technical with pressure pads, hot, cold and electro magnetic sensors and slides, with manual systems being protected by thumbprint and computer codes.
Emma used the thick tape to pick up a clear thumbprint and carefully stored it, keeping watch while maintaining a light link to monitor Jesse's progress as the lithe young man effortlessly slid through doors and walls until he found the CD in the central safe.
There was a computer set into the wall next to the safe, and having checked the floor was clear of pressure pads and the walls clear of lasers, Jesse unphased. As soon as his weight settled, an audible click sounded followed by an electric whirring.
Bullets ripped through the air as the automatic machine guns focussed on the intruder, saturating the area with lead, and Jesse shuddered as the hot metal bounced off his massed form, thanking his lucky stars for the lightening reflexes that made him change before the first bullets hit.
But now he was out of options. He hadn't counted on the floor itself being one enormous pressure pad that set the guns off, and he could feel it clicking beneath his heavier weight. Something bad was going to happen, he just knew it, but since they'd already been discovered Jesse decided it would be better to get the disk now. The computer had closed into a protective shell so, still massed, he tried putting his fist through the safe.
He hadn't made contact when the floor shifted and he fell, heavily, straight down.
Emma screamed as her contact with Jesse, however superficial, was abruptly cut off. Heedless of her own proximity to the building that was now shaking and falling apart at the seams, she reached out to try and contact her colleague and friend.
There was nothing, not even the static of unconsciousness or coma. Only the nothingness of, of…
She wouldn't consider that, and forced herself calmer until she could get out of there. She ran, ignoring the shout of the rudely awoken security guard, and didn't stop until her knees threatened to give out.
"Emma? Emma, talk to me. Where's Jesse? I can't pick him up." She slowly became aware of Adam's voice.
"I – I –" And as she allowed herself to think about what had happened, her emotions overloaded.
She never saw the Genomex flunkies filtering into the surrounding area.
*****
"Emma! Emma, listen to me! Where is Jesse?"
Adam clutched at the console as Emma's panicked grief projected and surged through him.
"What was that?" cried Shalimar, as she charged in with Brennan hot on her heels.
"We need to go pick Emma up." Adam took a deep breath. "Something's happened to Jesse and it's got her spinning out of control."
Shalimar hissed, her eyes glowing as her feral nature sprang to the fore. "I'm gone." And she was, with Brennan loping behind her as Adam tried to talk Emma calm.
Brennan watched Shalimar carefully, both protective of her and a little scared, much as one would be around a much loved but angry cat. He marvelled at how wild she got when one of her 'family' were in trouble, and wondered if he could ever feel the same. Certainly he got pissed when someone he knew got hurt, but everything was always fine in the end - and even when it wasn't, it never really seemed to touch him to much. Jesse was probably stuck in a wall somewhere that Emma couldn't reach through. It wouldn't be the first time.
Of course, last time, he'd been there to free Jesse up before he'd died of asphyxiation, but that was a whole other story.
When they found Emma, she was somewhat calmer but cornered. Brennan grinned, rippling his fingers and feeling the energy run true, his expression as feral in its own way as Shalimar's. He loved kicking ass, and who better than to take out any stress on than puppets that clearly originated from Genomex.
Shalimar positively glowed with energy, and the two of them made short work of the small group of armed men, leaving those that didn't flee in groaning heaps on the ground.
With no thought for tact or diplomacy, Brennan lifted Emma and carried her back to the Double Helix with Shalimar trailing, watching out for anyone following them.
*****
Jesse's first thought was that it was night. He fumbled for the light switch, but his hand knocked against something solid. Wherever he was it was absolutely dark, and feeling around, moving, he discovered that he was in a tightly enclosed space.
The word for it crept into his mind, but he ignored it. Not going there.
He took a deep breath to push down the panic that was circling him along with that word. Then let it out as he willed himself light, molecules pushing through molecules in the manner that was phasing. And like the wrong side of a magnet, was repelled.
He couldn't phase through, and that word was circling closer. He fought against the panic, but it rose up hand in hand with his greatest fear and he could feel the oxygen running out, the walls pressing in and he was gonna die in here, in this tiny space and he was gone and forgotten and alone and no one was gonna rescue him and please let this be a nightmare, he didn't want to die like this in here in this, in this…
… coffin.
*****
Adam couldn't help but glare as Mason Eckhart came online. He wanted his missing team member back, and he wanted him back, hale, whole, hearty and now.
"There were GSA Agents at the scene, Mason, you must know something about it," Adam insisted when Eckhart denied all knowledge.
"Of course there were." Eckhart rolled his eyes, "I had as much interest in that disk as you did." He paused a moment as if considering whether to give out any information. Eventually, his mind made up, he continued. "You may be interested to know that one of my own agents disappeared yesterday, a feral. It may or may not be connected. Aluino Sorrelli. Send him back home if you come across him, would you?"
Eckhart signed off as Shalimar entered. "The bastard!" she spat. "He has to have Jesse, there isn't anywhere else he could be! I say we – "
"Shalimar, please!" Adam held up his hands. "There are other possibilities, and we have to eliminate them before doing anything rash." He took a breath. "I happen to believe he's telling the truth. Perhaps not all of it, but enough that I don't think he's behind Jesse's disappearance."
*****
The walls were closing in, he could feel them, he was sure of it, a millimetre at a time, exerting a microscopically slow pressure on him, forcing all breath from his body.
The air was growing warmer adding to the tight feeling in his chest, all as a result of the oxygen being used up.
Again and again, he tried to phase, to mass, banging the sides, kicking and shouting. He'd tried carefully feeling around for air holes, hinges, cracks, anything that might be a weakness he could exploit. But with nothing there, just this hard, seamless, repellent capsule, he was giving in to the hysteria that was trying so hard to consume him.
He'd defeated this once before, but at least he'd been able to see out, at least someone had talked to him, he'd not been entirely alone.
Not one fear at work here, but many. Claustrophobia, but oh, what an umbrella that was. Sheltering fear of loneliness, fear of abandonment, fear of fading away, fear of drowning, suffocation and darkness.
Of being left alone in a darkness where no one can hear you scream.
*****
Brennan and Shalimar scoped out the building where Jesse disappeared. The GSA were crawling all over it, and Brennan found himself standing alone as Shalimar bounded away in search of prey to take out her worry and frustration on.
His long strides making up ground on her feline glide, he wished that the feral would give the GSA Agents time to answer her repeated questioning - where is he, what have you done with him, etc. - before breaking their kneecaps.
Lashing out at a couple himself who tried back attacks, Brennan caught one in a choke hold, threatening with sparking fingers to taser his prisoner's face.
Finally, after reducing the man to a terrified, whimpering lump on the ground, Brennan - and more importantly Shalimar - were convinced that the GSA were as much in the dark about the disk, Jesse and their own missing feral as they were.
*****
With Mr Eckhart's calming presence behind her, Sandra extended her senses out. Born blind and deaf, her mutancy ironically gave her the ability to see and hear using someone else's mind. Her psionic ability didn't allow her to control, merely sit inside her target's head and monitor what they heard and saw.
Out of the two Mutant X team members that had materialised, the female was too chaotic for Sandra to be comfortable with, whereas the man was less complicated. So she chose to use him to eavesdrop.
*****
Searching the building thoroughly after the GSA had departed, there was no evidence as to where Jesse might have gone. This left both Shalimar and Brennan immensely frustrated.
A newly collapsed floor below a wall riddled with bullet holes was the only indication of any activity at all.
On a hunch, Brennan dug out a couple of the bullets. They were squashed from the impact, but Adam might be able to make something of them.
They searched and searched again, looking for the smallest of clues, but eventually even Shalimar had to concede that there was nothing there to be found.
*****
Jesse had long given in to panic and hysteria, the air thick and heavy now, every breath a fight for survival. He actually caught himself a couple of times begging for his mom to come and let him out, amidst promises to behave.
The bottom fell out of his dark world with a crash of freezing air and disorienting noise, teeth and claws flashing in his face as he instinctively massed, feeling hard claws raking ineffectually across impermeable skin.
Whatever his opponent was, it was fast and furious, giving him no quarter to catch breath or retaliate. A massed boot below the belt, a glancing blow, but enough to give him time to breathe and phase before the rabid furball was on him again, snarling and gnashing, shredding and tearing, intent on ripping his throat out.
A glimpse of a reddened eye full of anger and fear-filled hysteria that echoed his own. Fuelled his own. Here was something he could take out the strain and pent up rage he hadn't realised he was holding inside on. So he retaliated, discarding his toughened shell in favour of the more agile phasing, using the monster's own momentum against it and hitting back. He gained a few gashes for his trouble but finally got the upper hand.
Pinning the other to the ground, Jesse pulled himself up short with horror. He was putting the feral, for that is what the young man glaring at him through golden eyes had to be, through one of his own fears. Throttling him to death, seeing the golden eyes faded to dark brown as he weakened. So he let him breathe.
Looking around him, he discovered they were in a plain grey room with only one entrance. Or exit. And it was wide open for them to take; a trap, surely, but a risk worth taking if staying here meant being ensnared or put back into the coffin. But what to do about the feral?
"Come on then, hotshot, finish me off," the feral challenged.
Jesse looked at him curiously, then shrugged. "Not my style. So how did you get in here. Collapsing floor and a coffin, perchance?"
The other man laughed sharply. "Green fire and cage," he replied. "I guess you're not one of the hooded ones, then."
Jesse blinked, "Uh, not that I know of. Hooded ones?"
The feral shrugged. "Two people in cloaks and hoods. Thought they might be Mutant X, but didn't fit the profile."
Now it was Jesse's turn to laugh. "Yeah, well, they don't sound like Mutant X to me. So, what about you?"
"Ah hell," the feral relaxed and rolled his eyes. "You're Mutant X!" he declared. "The molecular." He looked straight at Jesse, "Would you kill me if I told you I was GSA?"
Jesse grimaced and tightened his hold again. "Would you kill me if I suggested a truce until we got out of here?"
The feral sighed. "Until we get out of here, but I don't trust you."
Jesse let go again. "Yeah well, I don't trust you either," he said, getting off the other man, "but I guess we gotta start somewhere." He offered his hand. "Call me Jesse," he said, frowning at the rivulets of blood that seemed to be running from somewhere up his arm.
The feral grinned, exposing vicious canines. "Call me Al," he said, shaking Jesse's hand briefly, then nodding towards the molecular's arm. "You should see to that."
*****
"This is hopeless!" Shalimar fumed as they trawled the streets, interrogating lowlifes and Genomex back door contacts. There was nothing, no clue, not even any bizarre stories.
Brennan whole-heartedly agreed with her and said so. "To be honest, I think the only person who can help us find Jesse, is Jesse," he said.
Shalimar spun on him angrily. "And what if he can't? What if he's lying unconscious somewhere? Locked in a pod, or, or, whatever!"
"I don't know what else we can do, Shal," Brennan said, his own frustration clear in his voice. He knew that Shalimar regarded Jesse as close family but, surprising even himself, Brennan had found himself looking upon the younger man as a kid brother, one who needed looking out for, not because he was incapable - far from it in fact - but by virtue of simply being the kind of kid brother he would maybe have liked to have had. The kind he knew he could rib mercilessly, but God forbid anyone else so much as hint at saying a bad thing against him, the kind who brought his protective instincts out even as he knew he trusted Jesse to watch his back in return.
So, not to put too fine a point on it, he was almost as worried as Shalimar, and trying his best to be the level headed one. "We should keep looking, though," he said finally, and Shalimar nodded.
"Better than sitting on our hands doing nothing," she agreed.
*****
Jesse flexed his fingers in a conscious effort not to fuss with the torn shirt that acted as a makeshift bandage over the long gash on the outside of his upper right arm. Blood was seeping through, but he was hoping that he'd be able to get it seen to properly sooner rather than later.
He and Al had settled into a somewhat nervous silence, neither really trusting the other, yet united in their trepidation of what might still befall them. They were in some form of tunnelling, superficially prefabricated and portable, but when Jesse had tried to phase through he'd found old brickwork where the makers of this maze had used existing works, probably sewers. He'd reluctantly phased though brick and into rock and earth as far as he'd dared before being forced to go back by the looming threat of suffocation, an experience which only added to his high levels of anxiety. Underground tunnels, coffins and phasing into the never-never were all aspects of a deeply ingrained phobia, and although he was managing to do and to cope on the face of it, his nerves were stringing out and fraying, leaving him tense and jumpy.
Al wasn't doing much better, either. His personal theme of entrapment was exacerbated every time they hit a dead end, or worse, one of those sudden hidden doors dropped down behind them to close off one path, forcing them to choose another.
Neither one of them expressed the idea that they were being herded towards some unknown, yet dreaded fate.
Various obstacles along the way hindered their progress, but forced the trust between them to grow. Al picked up the smell of gas long before Jesse's all too human senses would have and steered them clear of a small explosion in one tunnel. A portion of tunnel collapsing and Jesse, massed, protecting Al from the potentially lethal debris.
One dead end slammed a wall down on them, leaving them trapped in a small space, something that had freaked them both out. Calming himself, Jesse had phased through each wall, finding two doors, the one they'd come through and another that had a lock on the outside, which he used to let Al out.
A little later they'd been cornered by a large wolfhound, which Al had quickly dispatched with flash of gold and a long growl.
Now, they'd reached another dead end. There was a fork they could go back to so they could explore the other tunnel, but they were exhausted, hungry and thirsty. The air was just a touch on the warm side, but the slow dehydration served to make it seem warmer.
Deciding to rest for a while, they propped each other up and tried not to go so far as to fall asleep.
Jesse wiped a hand across a slightly grimy brow, wincing at the greasy feeling of dry sweat.
"Hey," said Al, "you know, I just thought. You didn't have to stay with me. You could've used your phasing thing to go your own way. Could've been out of here by now."
Jesse shrugged; he hadn't really thought about it. Once they'd called a temporary truce, Al had been a part of his team, and it simply never occurred to him to leave a team mate behind. He might've thought about it if the feral had pointed it out as an option, but he would still never have left him, it went against his sense of duty. "We don't leave team-mates behind," was all he said. "And besides, you bring your own skills to this."
Al snorted. "Your solid self would have dealt with any of that."
"Don't put yourself down," Jesse told him. "Sure, the massing and phasing things give me a certain advantage, but that advantage is kinda dependant on me knowing about the danger in the first place." He gestured to his throbbing arm, blood leaking from under the bandage. "You did some serious damage and my power has some pretty huge weaknesses."
Al grinned then winced. "Sorry about that, was kinda freaked."
"Huh! Like you were the only one!" Jesse rolled his eyes.
"I guess I'm just used to the pack thing," Al explained. "Never really done anything as an individual."
As Jesse looked at Al now, he suddenly realised how very young the other man seemed. Maybe twenty at the most. "So, you grew up at Genomex?"
Al nodded. "Pretty much, yeah. Orphaned at five and they took me in." He yawned.
As Jesse's yawn followed, he struggled to his feet. "No falling asleep, we don't know what might happen. We need water and we need to get out of here. Not necessarily in that order." He held out his hand.
Al took it and stood up. "You first!"
*****
"I can't believe that there's nothing!" Adam growled, throwing his hands up in anger and storming across the lab. "We don't even know where to start!"
Emma tried to project some sense of calm over Adam's agitation, but only earned a snapped order to stop it. Pursing her lips, she strengthened her shields against his self-recrimination, annoyed because doing so reduced any remote chance of picking something up from Jesse. It didn't reduce the chance by more than a fraction but, as far as she was concerned, every fraction counted, and shielding was better than the interference generated by his emotions.
"Please Adam," she begged in her softest, youngest voice, "we need to have faith. Jesse will come back to us, one way or another. He's too stubborn not to." She wished she believed her own words but, although no word of it was a lie, she couldn't erase the awful emptiness in her sub-conscious where Jesse should be. Everyone she held dear had a spot like that, and she could feel Brennan and Shalimar in the distance, exhausting themselves in futile searching, Adam here and loud, and in the far distance one or two other loved ones long missed but safe.
"I know," Adam pinched the bridge of his nose. "And I'm sorry, it's just… even the bullets Brennan and Shalimar brought in had no identifying marks, and the little detail we could get from the rifling was just too generic to trace. Everything seems to be conspiring against us!"
"You're just angry and frustrated, like we all are - and worried." Emma was placating as she felt him get himself back under control. "Why don't we get a cocoa or something, take five."
Adam smiled. "You're too good to me sometimes, you know that?"
"Yeah, well, someone has to be," Emma returned blithely. And unspoken she completed that thought. 'Because I won't let you compromise any chance of finding Jesse.'
*****