Found this story I wrote way back from when I was 13, at the beginning of my X-Phile years. Decided to repost for nostalgia.
This is my second attempt at X-Files fan-fiction, my first attempt was
pretty pathetic and unworthy of being called XF fan-fiction, so all your
praises, flames, corrections, etc. are welcome. Also I realize that the
X-Files, Dana Scully, and Fox Mulder belong to Chris Carter and Ten-
Thirteen Productions and FOX Broadcasting and I used them without
permission. No copyright infringement intended.
FLASH
By: FilmGrrl99
(© 09/04/95)
New York City
11:21 pm
The cold winter wind whipped his face mercilessly. The air was thick
and he was forced to sit down to rest. The bench wasn't exactly the
safest place, but he didn't feel like walking to the small cafe a block
and a half away. He watched an orange cat run out of a nearby alley.
It jumped onto a garbage can and ran into the street. A car came by
and swerved to miss it. The car drove into a puddle and splashed the
cat with oily brown water. The cat hissed and ran into a sewer.
Two rather tall muscular men, both in black, sat at either side of him
on the bench. The one told him to get up the other shoved a gun into
his ribs. He complied and followed the leader into an alley. The
leader then abruptly turned around and punched him in the face. The
other came, took his wallet out, and hit him with the butt of his gun.
Both ran off. Pierce Bryson recovered immediately from the blows
and walked out of the alley. He could see his attackers running down
the sidewalk.
Pierce felt his hands tighten as he watched them run. His eyes
followed them, glaring. Every muscle in his body tightened as he
stood there rigid. His face broke out in a sweat as he concentrated
hard on what he was about to do. His eyes, now wide with anger,
darted to the lamppost light. The light exploded and a blue/white
surge of electricity came from the bulb striking the two men and
holding them in place as the electricity ran through their bodies killing
them slowly. They both yelled blood curdling screams as the beam
encircled their bodies. The two then stopped moving and the beam
vanished leaving the streets deadly quiet.
Pierce slowly walked over to the men. They had scorch marks all over
their faces and, Pierce suspected, all over their bodies. He turned one
of the men over, spotted his wallet, and took it back. Then, after
looking in both directions for any witnesses, ran across the now empty
road and headed down the street in the opposite direction.
New York City
10:30 am
"The 911 call came in at about 1 am this morning. At first I thought it
was just some suicide because there were no bullet wounds, no
apparent weapons anywhere, and there is that window," Police
Lieutenant Mason gestured to a window in an apartment 30 feet above
them.
"But?"
"But not many people decide to burn themselves before jumping out of
windows," the Lt. gestured to the scorch marks on the bodies.
"Whoa, Scully want to take a look at this?"
The female agent pushed her way through the crowd of people that the
police were having a hard time keeping back, and kneeled down by
one of the bodies. "It's almost like they've been electrocuted. Fire
doesn't leave these kind of burn marks."
"Um, there is just one strange thing though. This lamppost, the bulb
exploded."
"What's so strange about that?" The female agent seemed somewhat
bored as she and her partner gazed at the light.
"Well usually when a bulb explodes it doesn't take the glass cover with
it."
The two agents looked and sure enough there were the remnants of
glass still attached to the lamppost. The Lt. watched as the male
agent's eyes scoured the ground looking for the pieces of glass.
"Still this couldn't have caused the two men's death. Who lives in that
apartment?" the male agent asked pointing at the building. There was
only one window on the entire building that faced the sidewalk where
the men were killed.
"Empty. However, we could go talk to the landlord. Maybe one of the
other residents heard something." The two agents followed the Lt.
into the building.
As it turned out the landlord heard nothing, but one of the residents
thought she heard screaming outside. When she went out to
investigate all she saw was the back of a man running down the street.
"I thought I was just hallucinating and I went back to bed," she
continued.
"Did you see what he was wearing, what color his hair was?" Mulder
questioned.
"No, it was dark out. I didn't see and bodies either. I wasn't really
looking."
The Lt. thanked the woman and left. Both Mulder and Scully
followed.
"Not much to go on," the Lt. admitted.
"Well, I think we'll have a little more information after Agent Scully
performs the autopsy." Mulder looked to Scully, who nodded
acceptingly.
NY Bus Station
11:15 am
Bryson bent down to tie his shoe, he had to leave before the police
found him. He checked his ticket. 11:30 bus to Trenton, NJ. Not the
greatest place in the world, but at least he could hide out there and plot
his next move. He checked his watch for the ump-teenth time in the
past five minutes. 11:15 Damn, it's still not here.
Bryson sat down on a bench next to an elderly man. He must have
scared the old guy because he immediately got up to leave, his cane
accidently smashing Pierce's foot.
"Ouch," Pierce rubbed his foot in pain, the old guy not even
apologizing. A slight twinge of anger formed in Bryson's head and at
that moment a light overhead shattered, hitting the old man.
The old man, shaking in terror, collapsed to the floor almost in tears.
Two security guards, who had witnessed the scene, rushed to the bench
and took Bryson by his arms and began to drag him to the security
booth.
Oh god not now. I've got to get out of here he thought. They had just
rounded the corner and ahead lay a long deserted hallway. He
concentrated on the lights just above them. There was a loud shatter
and pieces of the light came falling down. Both guards let go of
Bryson and covered their heads with their hand. Bryson stood up and
glanced at the security camera concentrating on the side of it as it
moved away from him, he then shifted his gaze to the light and
watched as a blue/white lightning beam spewed out encircling the
guards in its deadly grasp.
The guards put up much more of a fight that the thugs did a day
earlier. One guard reached for his gun and probably would have shot
it if Bryson hadn't plucked it out of his hand.
As Pierce ran in the other direction he could still see the surprised look
on the guard's face as his gun floated in the air toward Bryson's
outstretched hand. As he stopped briefly at the corner to catch his
breath, he wondered what had gone through the guards' heads just
before they died. Looking down at his hand, he saw he was still
holding the guard's gun. He quickly shoved it into the waistband of
his jeans. He checked his watch again 11:25. Running toward the
bus, he checked his pocket for the ticket. It wasn't there. Damn I
must have dropped it in the hall he thought. He looked back. It would
be too dangerous to retrieve it. He bit his lip trying to think of what to
do. He raced toward the ticket counter. He was relieved to see that
there was a different ticket seller and no line.
"The eleven thirty bus to Trenton, please."
Office of Lt. Mason
11:30 am
"The autopsy confirms our earlier suspicions: these men were
electrocuted. Not only that, but pieces of the glass from the light were
found burrowed deep in their skin," Scully said tossing the report on
the Lt.'s desk.
"The glass could have entered them from falling on it," the Lt. offered.
"Yeah, but how could they possibly get electrocuted?" Mulder seemed
puzzled.
"There's no proof that they actually died at that spot. The woman said
she didn't see any bodies, they could have-" before Scully could finish
an officer came running into the office.
"Sir, there's been another murder."
NY Bus Station
11:50 am
Scully was amazed at how someone could kill out in the open like this
without worrying about people seeing or even the security cameras,
which were all over the place. As they rounded the corner, the stench
of burnt flesh became apparent. Then they came to the bodies. Scorch
marks infested both faces. There were blood stains on their uniforms
and both their mouths were open as if they were screaming. It wasn't
a pretty sight.
"What's that, that paper under them?" Mulder reached under one
guard and removed what had caught his eye.
"It looks like a bus ticket," Scully observed.
The Lt. took a closer look. "Looks like he was headed to Jersey."
Mulder looked up to see the broken lights. He looked behind him and
saw the security camera, a smile creeping over his lips as he
whispered, "We've got him."
Security Booth
12:00 pm
"They reported a guy attacking an elderly man. They said they were
taking him up front for questioning," the guard informed them as he
rewound through the camera's tape.
"Do you know where that man is now?"
"Who that old guy? No. After Bill and Marty were found, I sent a
couple more guys out after him. Nothing. Okay here you go. This is
before they came down the hall," he stopped rewinding the tape and let
it play.
Mulder watched as three men walked down the hall, he watched the
glass come down, and one man break free. Then suddenly the camera
moved almost like it had been pushed. The camera didn't move back
for another three minutes, then rotated toward the two dead bodies, the
attacker gone.
"Can we get an accurate picture of the guy?" asked the Lt.
The guard rewound the tape and put it into slow motion as he played
it. "No . He kept his back to the camera. When we did get a shot of
him, it was a side shot, and his hair seems to distort the picture so we
can't really see his face."
"I want that camera dusted for prints," Mulder told the Lt.
"What? Why? He couldn't have reached the camera, it's too high up."
"Could you just please do it?" Mulder gave the Lt. that warning look.
The Lt. matched the look then turned away carrying out Mulder's
order and muttering something about bossy Federal Agents.
"Mulder. . . ," Scully started.
"It's just a thought. You saw how that camera had been moved. It
didn't turn back until the killer had escaped."
"It could have been a malfunction in the equipment."
"Maybe, but at least this was we'll be sure."
He turned back to the guard. "Can you radio the bus going to New
Jersey and warn the driver of a possible killer on the bus and tell him
to take his time? Tell him we'll keep him posted and he might have to
turn around."
The guard nodded and picked up the radio.
C'mon Scully let's see how the Lt.'s doing."
As Mulder and Scully rounded the corner, the Lt. came running up
with a huge smile on his face.
"We've found a print! I sent it to the office to get identified."
"Are you sure it's not an employee's fingerprint?"
"No one is supposed to touch the cameras, but we are checking just in
case and we should have the results soon."
"Good. The guard is radioing the driver and warning him."
Security Booth
12:30 pm
"Good news Agent Mulder, we have a positive identification and a
picture of the guy." The Lt. handed Mulder the picture. "His name's
Pierce Bryson."
Mulder looked at it, then showed it to Scully. "Take this and go ask
the ticket sellers if they saw this man." She took it and left. Mulder
watched her go then said," Did either of the guards have a missing
gun?"
"Yeah, one holster was empty."
"Okay then we have to assume that our suspect is armed. Get ready to
radio the driver again."
Five minutes later Scully returned. "He bought a ticket for the bus
heading for New Jersey, and she watched him board the bus."
Mulder looked in the guard's direction and nodded.
Bus Station
1:25 pm
Mulder's radio buzzed, "It's coming," came Lt. Mason's voice. Mulder
looked at Scully, she was stationed about 25 feet away from him on the
bench where Bryson had been hours earlier. He gave her a nod and
watched as she undid the strap on her gun holster. He did the same
and picked up a newspaper pretending to read it. He had told the Lt.
and the security guards to stay back as not to create a panic. He
reminded them this was still a full bus station and the people on the
bus had no idea what was going on.
Scully watched the bus pull up to the side. She watched as the angry
passengers got off one by one muttering things like "why didn't they
check the fuel" and "now I'm going to be late for my meeting." She
sighed. People if you only knew she thought. Suddenly a tall blonde
man exited the bus. She looked over at Mulder, who nodded and put
down his paper. She counted to herself one. . . two. . . three she got up
and followed Mulder toward Bryson.
Pierce looked around. Somehow he knew the cops were responsible
for this. He had to get away. He looked behind him, he was being
followed. He looked around desperately for a place to hide. He found
a place. It was an old storage room. It had some old bus seats and
some chairs stacked up against the side. He ran to both doors and
locked them. He then ducked behind a stack of seats, gun in hand.
"Where's he go, Mulder?"
"I don't know. He was just here. Wait, he may have ducked in here."
Mulder tried the door, it was locked. "Cover me." He then took his
gun out and switched the safety off. He heard Scully do the same as he
prepared to kick down the door.
Crash. The door swung open leaving pieces of wood and the lock on
the side of the wall. The room was empty. Mulder walked in followed
by Scully.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Bryson and what he was about
to do. "Mulder!" she screamed, but it was too late the stack of bus
seats came toppling down on the FBI agent. Pierce jumped on top of
the pile gun pointed at Scully. "Special Agent Dana Scully drop your
weapon," she heard herself say.
From under the pile Mulder tried crawling out. He had lost his gun
and felt like he had a broken or at least bruised rib. He finally cleared
the seats and stood up, diving forward and tackling Bryson.
Scully tried to shoot, but Mulder had gotten in the way of her gun.
Finally Bryson threw Mulder over his shoulder and, before Scully
could shoot, he took aim and fired.
"No!" Mulder screamed. He scrambled over to his partner only to see
a large pool of blood surrounding a wound in her side. He turned back
in Bryson's direction with a look that combined hatred, fear, and that
psychotic look he had when he had strangled Duane Barry. He
jumped to his feet and started in his direction.
The light bulb above him broke, throwing shards of glass everywhere.
Then a blue/white lightening beam snaked out and encircled Mulder's
body, weakening him, tearing through his insides, draining his very
essence. He cried out in agonizing pain.
Scully awoke to find herself in great pain. She heard screams that
weren't her own. She touched her side and found that she was
bleeding from a bullet wound. Memory flooded back as she
remembered standing in front of Bryson, not firing because Mulder
was in the way. I can't believe it, that SOB shot me. She shifted
slightly causing more pain. She realized that the screams belonged to
Mulder. Bryson was standing next to him hands curled into fists,
standing rigid, and eyes glaring. She looked around her surroundings
and saw her gun only a few feet away. She used her shoulder to crawl
and used her hands to apply pressure on the wound and try to stop the
bleeding. Only a few more inches. She reached out and clutched it in
her bloody hands. She held her breath and prepared for the pain that
was going to follow. She pulled herself up into a sitting position,
stretching her arms in front of her, took aim and fired.
Mulder felt himself dying. He had fallen on the floor and was starting
to see bright flashes of white light. He didn't even hear the gun-shot
or Bryson's cry of pain as he fell only a few feet away from Mulder.
He did, though, feel the lightning disperse and then felt his energy
start to return.
"Mulder?"
"Scully!" He turned around to see Scully propped up against a chair at
the other side of the room nursing the bullet wound. "You're okay!"
"I have been better." She shifted a little against the chair, winced,
then cried out in pain. "What about you?"
"Well. . . now I know what Luke felt like." She smiled. "Let me go
get you some help." He tried lifting himself, which took some time,
but he finally stood and limped over to the door. He reached down and
squeezed her shoulder," I'll be right back."
Bus Station
2:10 pm
Mulder watched as the ambulance took Scully away on a stretcher.
She turned her head until she was facing him, then whispered,"Hey
Mulder, keep the office neat while I'm gone." He smiled and squeezed
her hand. He would eventually follow, the doctors needed to check out
his burn marks.
Lt. Mason came up behind him. "Agent Mulder, a report came back
on our friend. It seems he escaped from a local mental institution
three days ago."
"Why was he there?"
The Lt. flipped through the report,"When he was eight years old his
parents were killed by a serial killer right in front of him. He would
have been killed also had not a police officer come by and shot the
guy. He was placed with his aunt and uncle. They claimed that the
boy was never the same, constantly angry. He put his fist through
their car window when he was ten. Shortly after he turned thirteen he
disappeared for ten days-"
"Wait what do you mean disappeared?"
"There are no exact details, but when his aunt and uncle found him he
was naked, bruised, and could barely talk. He claimed he was taken by
aliens and was aboard their. . .uh. . . ship for that entire time, and was
being experimented on. There was no other proof to substantiate his
claim so his story went ignored. His aunt and uncle thought he was
just badly traumatized, they thought that someone associated with his
parents' death was responsible. But here is the familiar part, after he
was returned his aunt and uncle were mysteriously killed. It was
speculated that they were electrocuted to death, and the light bulbs
around them were shattered. When Bryson was questioned, he started
ranting on about aliens and an experiment done on him. The police
report says that he started pointing to his skull saying that he had
some kind of telekinesis. He said that there used to be a hole in his
head between his two eyes.
"Trepanning," Mulder muttered to himself.
"What's that?"
"Trepanning. It's a uh spiritual practice that rids you of the evil spirits
inside you. In ancient times trepanning was performed on live
patients suffering from fractured skulls, convulsions, insanity. Some
people who were trepanned claim to have telekinetic powers, some
even claim they could control people's thoughts."
"Yeah. . .well. . .um he was in such a bad mental state that he was
committed to the mental institution. The death of his aunt and uncle
was said to be caused by a kitchen electrocution, Bryson uninvolved in
it. So Bryson stayed in the institution for fourteen years. His mental
state never improving."
"Did he ever attempt to escape before?"
"According to the report no, but the night he did escape there was a
mysterious black-out at the institution. It was the only place in New
York City that lost power."
"Did anyone bother to look for fingerprints or broken wires or
anything?"
"The institution heads say that the wiring in the building is old and
pretty bad. In fact they were having someone come to fix the wiring in
a week. So do you have any idea about how this guy killed these
people?"
"You said that when he returned he had been trepanned right?"
"Yeah his aunt and uncle were so terrified that they had him go
through surgery to cover it up. Bryson claimed that it was and I quote
'the work of the aliens. They used a blue laser and cut right through
my head. They told me I'd have powers beyond human
comprehension."
"Well. . .um he seemed to keep it under control most of the time. It
must be when he gets angry he would use it. When he attacked me,"
an involuntary shiver made it's way down Mulder's back and his burn
marks started to hurt with the memory of that lightening beam circled
around him, killing him," I had fought with him a little while before. .
.before he shot Agent Scully," again he shivered, " I hit him pretty
hard in the face before he threw me to the floor, then when I saw what
he did to her. . .I wanted to kill him. . .I guess he must have saw it
coming and had gotten angry. That must have been the power he was
talking about, the one *they* gave him."
"Agent Mulder, you okay?"
"Huh? Oh I'm fine. He possessed telekinesis, something he
must have gained from being trepanned. He could move things easily,
but somehow it left his fingerprints almost as if he was actually
touching the object. If you have the circuit breakers dusted you'll most
likely find his fingerprints there." He brought the back of his hand up
to his face too cool off the burns. "He probably channeled the
electricity in the light sockets. The bulbs had to be broken so that he
could channel the power there. This must have had to take extreme
concentration, which is probably why he never saw Agent Scully with
her gun."
The Lt. was looking at him strangely. "Well we are going to conduct
an autopsy so that might give us some more answers. Anyway Agent
Mulder I want to thank you for helping us out on this case, we
probably could never have solved it without you and Agent Scully. It's
been a pleasure working with the both of you." He extended his hand
and Mulder took it.
"You're welcome Lt. Do you by any chance have a quarter I can
borrow, I need to call someone."
"Who your boss? Here."
"No, someone else." He took the quarter and headed towards the
phone. He inserted it and dialed as he thought of what he was going
to say.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mrs. Scully this is Fox Mulder..."
THE END
