A/N: Anyone who has read this before will notice differences. That is because I read it again and realised I could do better, so I updated. Although the updated date is in July 2004, well after the end of the 3rd series it is set before the end of the 2nd series. I have a second story in the works which is going to be set after the 3rd series. Confused yet?
Disclaimer: I do not own Adam, Jesse, Emma, Brennan, Shalimar, Eckhart, Genomex or the Sanctuary. All others are from my imaginations.
"Spoken"
'Thought'
Telepathically
Chapter 1
"Josh, move it!" A 19-year-old girl stumbled up a hill, closely followed by a boy. Sirens sounded behind them, emitting from a large modern building. The two continued to run, while five adults chased them. On the other side of the hill was a main road. The girl held up a hand, signalling for a taxi to stop. The two jumped in the taxi sped off.
"Jesus Andi, I didn't realise they would discover you were missing so soon." Josh relaxed into his seat.
"I don't think we're safe just yet." Andi replied. Suddenly the car jolted to a stop. "Everybody out!" Andi yelled, before rolling out onto the road.
Josh and the driver escaped the car before it was lifted off the ground and sent smashing into an on-coming truck.
Josh scrambled on hands & knees to where Andi was lying, "Andi? Andi, are you all right?"
"I'm fine." She stood up, "I'm okay. Fine, they want to play, let's play."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to lead them off the road. They want me, they can come get me. But I'm not going to let them hurt innocent people in the process," she leant over and held out a hand to Josh, "Go find help. Find the mutants they were talking about; the rogue mutants, Mutant X."
She jumped up, ran back towards the hill and began to climb up. Suddenly she was at the top, with the facility on one side and the five workers on the other. She began to run along the top.
'I can out-run them. I can get to the town before they catch me. Come on, keep going.' She willed herself to keep running. Suddenly the hill stopped & it wasn't a hill anymore, but a cliff edge, "Damn!" She skidded to a halt, her shoes scuffling some stones over the edge. She leant over carefully, contemplating her escape routes.
She knew she couldn't use any powers; he had ways of tracking power usage. Even if she teleported, he'd find her. She looked around, maybe just one teleport; to get her to the bottom of the cliff.
"Give up & come quietly." A voice said behind her.
She smiled grimly, "You should know by now, that I rarely do anything quietly." She turned to face her pursuers. "You want me to come quietly; you'll have to sedate me again."
The leader smiled, "That can be arranged." He nodded to another, who lunged at Andi.
She blocked both punches and kicked the attacker square in the chest; throwing him far back. She ducked as another tried to kick her, and swept them off their feet with her leg. Spinning around, she punched one more in the face. Suddenly she felt a prick in the back of her neck. Staggering she faced the leader, who was holding a needle. She staggered backwards, and noticed a man grab another and punch him. She heard someone shout, "Jesse!" and noticed a blonde girl watching her, before collapsed into darkness.
Shalimar and Brennan were the first over hill, coming up in front of the girl. Seconds later Emma and Jesse appeared over the cliff edge. They grabbed two Genomex guards and easily tossed them.
Shalimar saw one of the attackers slide a needle out of the girls neck, and the girl staggered backwards. "Jesse!" She yelled as the girl's eyes locked with hers, and Jesse caught the girl in his arms as she fell. "Get her out of here." Shalimar told him before catching a guard with a blow to the cheek.
Andi's eyes fluttered open, and she tried to get her bearings. She was lying on some sort of hospital bed, in a room full of machines. Fear rose in her body as she thought of the facility. But when she sprang up she found she wasn't tied to the bed.
A gentle, but firm hand pushed her back down, "Sshh! It's all right, we won't hurt you." She looked up into a kind face. The man was in his mid-forties, with brown hair and friendly brown eyes.
"Where am I?" she croaked.
"You're safe. This is the sanctuary." He replied.
"I was at a cliff edge…" she searched her memory, "The doctor… he stuck a needle into me… and then there was a girl… she said something… and then… black."
She flinched as she felt a prick, as though she was back on the cliff top. Her head spun to face a young, blonde man sliding a needle out of the inside of her elbow. "Don't worry," he said, "It's just to flush the sedative out of your system."
"Who are you people? Why did you help me?" she asked.
"My name is Adam Kane." The older man told her, "This is Jesse Kilmartin. We are known as Mutant X."
She sat up and rubbed her arm, "I've heard about you. I sent Josh to find you, when I ran up the hill. But I was led to believe there were more of you."
"There is." Adam told her, "We have three more members, but you will meet them later. Right now you need some rest." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" she cried, "My friend, Josh. He was sent to find you. He-"
"Is fine." Adam interrupted her, "There other three brought him in with them after they had fought off your attackers. Now rest."
Andi watched him leave, and turned her head towards the other man. He stood beside her, studying a monitor. "Do you not fight?" she asked him.
He smiled, "I normally do. But I guess I was the guy who got to save the girl this time. I caught you before you collapsed and brought you here."
"My knight in shining armour, then?" Andi asked.
"I guess so…" Jesse smiled, his cheeks turning a slightly darker shade of red.
"Thanks, I guess." she replied.
"It's okay." He turned away, "Adam is right, you should get some sleep."
Andi watched his back thoughtfully for a moment and then lay down onto her side, her eyelids slipping shut.
Andi woke with a start, pushing herself up with her elbow and looked around herself, trying to recall where she was. But she found she'd been moved again. This time she was in a double bed, in a small bedroom. Stretching she sat up and looked at herself in the mirror. 'Ugh.' she thought. Looking to her left she noticed a small bathroom and, climbing out of the bed, she padded into it. She threw cold water around her face and looked up at her reflection; it hadn't really made much of a difference, but it had washed off the smudged make-up at least.
There was a quiet knock at the door and Andi looked out to see a petite red-head walk in.
"Hey," the woman said, "I brought you a change of clothes. Just thought you might want them."
"Thanks." Andi replied.
The woman set the clothes on the bed and turned back to Andi. "Emma DeLauro." she said.
"Andrea Walken, but you can call me Andi." Andi replied. They stood for a moment in awkward silence.
"Look, don't worry about us. We won't hurt you." Emma said.
Andi nodded, "Yeah… yeah, I know. So… what powers do you have?"
Emma smiled, "I'm a telempath."
"A telempath? What's a telempath" Nicci asked.
"I can read people's emotions." Emma explained.
"Oh… I'm a telepath, telekinetic, and a teleportal. Kinda three rolled into one." Andi told her.
"So, you can read people's minds, move stuff about and jump from place to place? God, I thought I had a lot with just one power." Emma said, shocked.
Andi smiled, "It's sort of like a package deal."
Emma laughed, "All right, look I'll leave and let you get changed. Come down if you're hungry."
"Thanks." Andi replied and began to change.
"Okay, so you've met Adam; he's working on the computer at the moment." Emma sat at the breakfast bar, introducing everyone, "You've already met Jesse…" Jesse smiled and nodded at her, "This is Shalimar Fox."
"Hey," the blonde said, "You can call me Shal."
Emma continued, "And this is Brennan Mulwray…"
"Hi." the tall brunette waved a hand.
"So what powers do you all have?" Andi asked.
"Well, I can change the my body density… sort of," Jesse said, "Brennan can, well putting it bluntly, shoot electricity out his fingers, and Shal is a feral."
"You're a feral?" she asked Shalimar, "We had a feral at the facility. She had amazing strength and speed."
Shalimar smiled, "Well, then maybe we should have a training session and you can see if I'm quicker or stronger."
Andi smiled, "Great."
"Andi, you're awake." Josh walked through the sliding doors.
"Yeah, and safe thanks to you." Andi got up and hugged him, "Thank you." The four mutants looked at her puzzled. Andi grinned, "I didn't mean that he saved me. Josh was the one who broke me out in the first place."
"Okay..." Jesse said, "Well, Josh can you use computers?"
Josh frowned, "A little, but I can learn fast. Why?"
"Because, I'll let you stay if you're useful." Adam said, walking up behind them, "and I'm thinking you both will be. Welcome to Mutant X. You're going to need these."
Andi caught the small object and examined it. It was a plain silver ring. She frowned and looked up at Adam enquiringly.
"Put it on." Brennan said, cocking his head up.
She slid it on her finger and stared in amazement as the ring glowed and took on gold symbols.
"They're com-links. We use them to contact each other." Jesse explained, "Only you can hear when someone talks to you and when you take it off…" he leaned over and slid the ring off her finger. The inscriptions disappeared, "No-one will be able to figure out what it is."
"Now that… is cool." Josh said, sliding his own on.