(Author's notes: Sorry this took a while, but I had some other things going on at the time. For the sake of time, I did not include Lewis and Die-Hard in this chapter, but fear not, they'll make another appearance soon. I was very anxious to describe Hammerspace's abilities and show what he could do in the thick of battle. Oh yeah, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas).
Factoring in Cameron's apprehension and fear concerning the unfriendly man who held his arm in a vice-like grip and with that strange ivory creation pressed firmly against his lower back, it was not at all unusual that he willingly allowed himself to be led to a gray, nondescript cell. He did not even voice a complaint when the door slid open and he was roughly pushed inside, the exit sealing itself almost immediately.
Cameron pressed his hands against the steel doors in a vain attempt to pinpoint a weak spot or perhaps thwart its defenses. After pounding on the door weakly for several minutes, Cameron wearily rested his forehead against the steel compartment and gave a great sigh of defeat.
It was only when his efforts ceased that Cameron finally became aware of the soft sobbing coming from behind him.
Slowly, carefully, he turned, half expecting to see someone close to death. One of the room's chairs had been turned around completely, and its occupant was seated unsteadily on the soft cushion. Her body shook and shuddered with every powerful expression of despair.
The girl had the chair's back facing the door, so Cameron could not see her face. From his position, he could make out a head of long, inky black hair and a violet shirt just beyond the chair's backrest. The girl must have had her hands pressed tightly over her face, for Cameron could not see any visible skin at the moment.
His heart sank at the pitiful sight and sound of his unwilling roommate. Cameron had already been through a terrifying ordeal. He had been strong-armed, abducted, and his fate was unknown. He was still unsure as to whether he would live through the night in the presence of the odd men with their hive mentality, brandishing ivory... things.
But that was irrelevant next to this latest development. Cameron decided that, with another mutant being reduced to tears, he would have to be the brave one. He would have to be the one to offer words of comfort and reassurance with an unfaltering demeanor. He was not sure he was up to the task. He had never considered himself brave... Were it not for the wave of compassion he felt in the presence of this mutant, he would have thought nothing of simply cowering in a corner until such time.
The boy gave a nod of determination. Trapped though they might be, he was going to at least try and alleviate the suffering of another, even if it might be too late for him to save his own future.
Taking a small step toward the weeping female, Cameron cleared his throat loudly. However, even with the reverberative qualities of the enclosed room, the girl's cries overpowered them with very little effort.
"Hey," Cameron said politely, yet firmly the best he could manage at the moment.
With a sharp intake of breath and instantaneous reflexes, the room's other occupant jumped up and turned wildly to face the voice.
Cameron was momentarily stunned. Although he was somewhat accustomed to seeing mutants with slight physical abnormalities (the image of the 7 foot tall boar once again pushed itself to the front of his mind and demanded itself to be seen), he had never seen a mutant quite as unique as this one, before.
Her hair was of the loveliest brunette color and velvety texture. But it dramatically contrasted with her linen-white skin. Indeed, it looked as though someone had overturned a bag of powdered sugar onto this poor girl. Cameron briefly considered her to be an albino, but then, didn't albinism also mandate a lack of pigmentation in hair follicles, as well? Although, she very easily could have applied some hair coloring, as he was fairly sure some girls did.
Her eyes rooted the boy to the spot. Although the whites of her eyes looked to be healthy and in good condition, her pupils were, amazingly, pure vermillion, shining like two of the rarest, most valuable rubies ever seen by mankind.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She shakily took a step back, bracing herself against the far wall.
"It's okay," Cameron assured her quietly, raising a hand. "I... I'm like you. I'm a mutant, too." Cameron mentally grimaced at his rather liberal interpretation of the word "mutant" in his case.
The girl's teary eyes wavered, uncertain.
"They took me, too," Cameron continued, his initial surprise at her unorthodox coloring already passed. "Those men in black with the... um..." he mimed a small firearm, to which the girl made no response. "Things," he settled, "They took two of my friends, also. They're in other cells right now. I... I don't know who these people are or what they exactly want with us..."
He took a deep breath, desperately trying to push his fear out of his mind, for the sake of this female. "But you're not alone. I'm here with you, and I promise that I'll help you get through this the best I can."
She kept her gaze locked on him, her tomato-red eyes still blinking back tears.
"I know you're scared. So am I," he admitted. "But... there's a chance we can find our way out of this."
The pure white girl studied her roommate intently. He couldn't be sure if his words were even having an effect on her. "My name is Cameron," he said, hoping to appeal to her on a personal level.
The tension in the room was so thick one was apt to asphyxiate in it. The girl's tears had finally stopped, and she looked to be making up her mind about something.
"I..." she whispered, still choking back another sob. "I'm Jennifer."
**********
Although Daniel was marching down a long, gray corridor with two men in black flanking each of his shoulders and those insipid blue marbles humming and whirling about, his mind was very far away. He wildly searched his mind for every science-fiction movie he had ever seen or comic book he had ever read, hoping to gain some insight as to the situation he was in.
On the plus side, he was still in perfect health, despite being rendered unconscious by a ray of what he could only describe as "funny light." Also, the prospect of a calzone all to himself had perked up his mood to an extent. Then again, he was also being forced to display his mutant abilities to an unknown audience for unknown purposes. Perhaps his captors would take a page out of the history books and do away with him if they were unsatisfied with his performance, as was common practice in the ancient Roman Empire.
Daniel had already come to two conclusions. First, he would have to find some way to contact his friends. They would have to put their heads together in hopes of either escaping this place or getting in touch with the Institute so reinforcements could be sent to their aid.
Second, there was something odd about "Mr. Krieg," as he was only known. Daniel didn't know why, but something about that man unsettled him greatly. Perhaps it was the unusual level of confidence he seemed to carry. It seemed that Krieg, in any situation, was automatically guaranteed to come out on top. He didn't strike Daniel as the type of man who had ever know failure in his life.
"So... So, you see, Mr. Huang," Sam rambled on, once again mispronouncing Daniel's surname. "This is really very straightforward. We're going to put you in an arena with plenty of open space." He fidgeted slightly before continuing. "We... We'll deactivate the orbs for you so that you may use your powers."
"On what?" Daniel asked in a bored voice.
"What?" Sam asked, startled.
"Use my powers on what?"
"Oh! Um... oh. We've specially designed some opponents... um... for you to interact with. They're relatively safe, but please be on your guard," he answered, his clipboard almost slipping out of his grasp.
"Whatever you say, Mr. Ambiguous," Daniel replied, smirking.
Two of the uniformed men chuckled, but Sam appeared lost. "Ambiguous? I don't get it," he stated in a hushed voice. "What does he mean?"
There was not a chance to answer, as the group had finally stopped before a huge pressure hatch with a keypad on its front. Sam shakily typed in a long code before the door opened with a hiss.
"This ought to be good," one of the men said before shoving the mutant into the room, the door mercilessly shutting when his body was fully inside.
It was, as Sam had said, an arena. Roughly equivalent to a basket ball stadium in size. The walls were metallic silver in color. There were no windows. There was, however, a mirror on the far end on one of the walls that Daniel suspected was one of the two-way looking glasses he had seen in the occasional detective film.
Behind said mirror, Sam and the others marched in and took their seats around a large monitor. The screen was divided into squares, each one focused on a different area of the other room. Mr. Krieg was in the middle of the group's semicircle, puffing on another expensive cigar. On several small tables in the room, laptop computers whirred, each one with a different face being transmitted via webcam.
"Everything ready, Sam?" Krieg asked lazily.
"Yes, sir."
"Connections secure?"
"Yes, sir. Mr. Hirata is one webcam line one from Tokyo, Mr. Vanderhof is one line two from Maastricht, and Ms. Gonzales is on line three from Los Angeles."
Krieg grumbled. "I thought Anita changed her mind about this one," he whispered to Sam.
"She had a change of heart, sir. You know her company-"
"I know all about that company of hers," Krieg interrupted before switching on a microphone. "Good evening, everyone," he announced in a warm, genial voice. "And ah, oyasumi nassai, Mr. Hirata."
Mr Hirata, seated at his desk in his luxurious suite in Japan, bowed his head.
"This is a demonstration of..." he snapped his fingers.
Sam immediately jumped up with a start. "Mutant... Mutant 181! Daniel Huang, AKA: Hammerspace." He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "His abilities include: metaphysical distortion and shaping of body mass, superhuman stamina and spontaneous creation of three-dimensional objects through atomic modification of air molecules."
The executives on the computer screens nodded, impressed.
"Um... first, we deactivate his... um... marbles. Developed by the ingenious Mr. Krieg."
Krieg smiled and shrugged.
Inside the arena, Daniel's thoughts were halted as the marbles encircling his body unceremoniously clattered to the floor, their glow fading as they did.
"Finally," he said to himself. "Those were driving me-" he was once again cut short as a portion of the wall slid up.
A small, odd-looking robot clumsily wheeled its way into the room. It was of a crude design, like someone had slapped it together the night before a science fair. It had tank treads for locomotion, with a cubic body and a triangular head. A small lens was fitted on the head, watching the mutant. It had only one arm, jutting out strangely.
"They've got to be kidding me," Daniel said to the robot.
In response, the robot aimed its arm the best it could, and fired a beam of intense blue light, engulfing Daniel immediately.
Daniel screamed. The robot clicked. Krieg and his subordinates cheered.
"...guess not," Daniel admitted, covered head to toe in black ash, his body still smoking. Without a second thought, the boy went into "mutant mode" and prepared for battle. He vibrated his body instantaneously, brushing off the ash. "So that's the way you want it, eh?" he propositioned to the creation.
The robot beeped, further enticing Daniel.
"Okay..." Daniel reached one arm behind his back, his eyes closing. He concentrated, and his professor had taught him to do, on the shape and weight of a mallet. In a matter of seconds, the familiar tingling of his palm signaled that the object had just been created. The mallet, crude black in color and composed mostly of carbon, swung around and crushed the robot flat, its speaker issuing out one final beep of mercy. He released the mallet, which, since no longer being held together by its mutant creator, promptly disintegrated back into thin air.
His victory was cut short as several beeps and clicks were heard from behind him. Daniel turned, and saw another robot three times bigger than the first. He did not even have a chance to make a quip as the steel creation brought down a huge iron fist upon his head.
Krieg watched, amazed as Daniel was flatted to the shape and size of a dinner plate, making a sound akin to a moldy piece of fruit dropped from a great height.
"Is... is he..." Sam ventured to ask the transfixed people in the smaller room.
With a triumphant boing, Daniel's formally flat body sprung up like a coil, bouncing erratically off the walls and ceilings of the room. His muscles, skin, bones, and even clothes seemed to be made of rubber, as the boy cheered arrogantly. The robot opponent remained immobile as its computerized mind whirred, pondering this latest development.
"Would you look at that," Krieg said.
The coil finally landed on its side, resuming its human form. The mutant also known as Hammerspace grinned as he reached another hand behind his back and drew out a large, caricatured black bomb with the crude white image of a skull on its front.
"Ba-boom," he remarked unconcernedly as he chucked the explosive at the bot.
There was a tremendous explosion, followed by an intense light and raining of shrapnel, to which Daniel brought out a large black umbrella that hadn't existed a second ago. Despite his predicament, Daniel derived some feeling of enjoyment from using his powers. It gave him a sense of power and of confidence, knowing that he had been blessed with such impressive abilities.
"Just call me Mr. Game & Watch," he announced to the smoldering remains of the robot.
"Oh, yes," Krieg remarked impressed. "I like this mutant."
The others nodded, while Sam frowned in confusion. "What do you suppose," he asked the others. "He means by 'gay men watch?'"
"Krieg-san," Mr. Hirata spoke up through the computer's microphone. "I have seen enough of this one. I will send an official offer tonight after consultation with my colleagues. Thank you very much for this demonstration," he finished, bowing his head again.
"Hai," Krieg responded, also bowing.
One of the monitors switched off. "He's a valuable one," Krieg recited, still observing the mutant specimen. "Let's send in the other bots just for fun."
"Yes sir, Mr. Krieg," Sam quickly said, pressing a button on his ivory remote.
With a telltale whirring and grinding, Daniel turned to consider the dozen more robots of varying designs and sizes that now treaded their way into the arena.
"Go ahead, punks," he threatened, drawing out two large clumsy black pistols from behind his back. "Make my day..."
In less than twenty minutes, Daniel had bounced, stretched, and conjured his way to victory. Spontaneously creating everything from a frying pan to a lasso to a sword, he had beaten, dismantled, or deactivated each opponent with a sarcastic comment and unfaltering demeanor.
"That's enough!" Krieg exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "Give that boy his calzone!"
**********
"I... I woke up in a tan room with one of th' men in black," Jennifer explained quietly, one ghostly hand clutched to her head. "I can't remember his name, but he said 'You're a mutant and we want t' study you for a time.' I explained my powers th' best I could. I hoped maybe if t'ey knew, I could go, but they sent me to one of t'ese rooms..."
They had already turned the chairs in the room to face one another, and Jennifer was trying to keep her composure as she described the details of her own abduction to Cameron, who listen raptly with a growing sense of sympathy. There was very little difference in their captures... these men apparently took many liberties in "recruiting" mutants for their unknown purposes. Although Cameron was very curious to know whether her coloring was a result of her X gene, he decided not to ask, for fear of offending her.
"I'm sorry," Cameron said kindly. "On your first trip abroad, too..."
She nodded. "Yeah... I didn't want to spend m' first time in America like t'is. Course, it's a lot more interestin' t'an where I'm from."
"I've seen some pictures of Ireland," Cameron said. "It looks very beautiful."
She shrugged. "You're very kind, but I wasn't plannin' on scenery when I traveled here. I was supposed t' see th' Institute."
"It's a great place," Cameron insisted, already lapsing into his tour guide persona. "They have everything you'd need, and the professor is all about helping mutants like us."
"Sounds too good t' be true," Jennifer remarked, shaking her head.
"So... what exactly is your ability?" Cameron asked, intrigued by this female.
He almost thought he saw her blush. She averted her gaze briefly before turning to face the boy. "Well... I don't really understand it," she admitted. "But I can sort of... absorb data."
"I don't understand."
"Well... If a computer has some information I need," she tried to explain, gesticulating a bit. I can put m' hand over it, and sometimes I can "hear" the data, and actually understand it."
"Oh... wow..." Cameron breathed with a little bit of jealousy. "You're like a human USB... do you have a mutant name?"
She blushed again, adjusting her position on the chair and smoothing the wrinkles from her skirt. "No..." she admitted. "Not yet... but since t'ere ain't any computers in here, t'ey decided I'd be harmless in one of t'ese rooms." Jennifer was finding it increasingly difficult to make conversation with this boy, as she was feeling a growing sense of anxiety. Not due to the fact that she was a hostage, but rather as a result of this mutant boy she was socializing with. This Cameron was the first person in practically her entire life who had not immediately made some ignorant remark about her appearance upon seeing her for the first time. He seemed to be genuinely interested in her abilities, her homeland, and most incredibly herself. That made Jennifer uneasy, although she wasn't quite sure why. "What's your ability, t'ough?" she asked, trying to avoid a lull.
Cameron paled. He had been hoping not to be asked that question. "...Why?" he asked vaguely.
"Well," Jennifer responded, shrugging. "I been talking about m'self for a while, now. I'd like to know what makes you a mutant." She raised her eyebrows expectantly.
Cameron groaned inwardly. Here it was... another situation where he would explain his so-called "power," only to have it dismissed as a parlor trick. Oh, well... this girl seemed nice enough. And she'd already been through a harrowing ordeal. Might as well get it over with...
"Well... my mutant name is 'Vox,'" he began.
She frowned. "Voice?"
Cameron blinked in surprise. "I studied Latin in m' school in Cork for a bit," she explained.
"I see," he said. "Basically, I... I can..." he paused.
"Yeah?"
"Do you... do you have a favorite American film, by any chance?" he asked, decided that the direct approach was not a good idea at the time. "Something I might have seen?"
Jennifer was confused. What was he getting at? "I haven't seen t' many films," she confessed. "I... don't like to go out in public all t'at much. Oh..." she said brightening. "But I did see 'Star Wars.' All six of 'em."
Cameron cleared his throat. "Good... Good..." he uttered in the perfect mimicry of the evil Emperor Palpatine. "Let the hate flow through you."
Jennifer blinked and placed a colorless hand over her mouth.
"Luke," Cameron continued in the voice of the enigmatic Darth Vader. "I am your father."
Her face was unreadable at that.
"Me-sa Jar Jar Binks," he went on, trying to keep a straight face despite sounding now like an anthropomorphic amphibian. "Here for comic relief."
Jennifer furrowed her brow as she perceived the little show being put on for her.
"What?" he asked in a tone that would make Harrison Ford nostalgic for his youth. "You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon, before?"
There was a very long, awkward pause. Jennifer remained immobile, staring at Cameron. He simply fell silent and waited for her to let out a sigh of disappointment. He was used to those. He waited for her to be let down and unimpressed. Waited for her to be-
"Wow!" she cried out, smiling for the first time since they'd met. "T'at was amazing!"
"It was?" Cameron asked, stunned.
"Yes!" she shouted, her bright smile giving way to a delightful laugh. "Incredible! I never heard... I... T'at's incredible!" she said between fits of laughter. She straightened her violet top and stared at Cameron, looking entranced.
"Heh..." Cameron began, fidgeting nervously. "Thank you..."
"You must be a big hit at parties," she guessed. "Wish I had that power..."
"I'm... glad you think so," Cameron said smiling. "Most of the other mutants I know don't really think it's so useful."
"Are you serious?" she asked, incredulously. "I t'ink it's wonderful! Nobody could ever be bored talking wit' you."
Cameron suddenly felt a sharp pain zigzag up his abdomen.
She leaned toward him a little. "Can you do any more?" she asked hopefully.
Cameron blushed, strangely grateful that he was a hostage for the time being.