I expect this story to end soon. It's kind of reached the climax so it can only go down from here :P enjoy the chapter!

Kendall felt an unbearable ringing in his ears when he started to regain consciousness. Wen his eyes first blinked open dazedly, his whole body felt numb and fora few moments he was aware of nothing. He was somewhere very dimly lit; this was the first thing he realised. He could only make out some very vague shapes, and had no idea what any of them were.

The next thing that came to him, in a flash of terror, was that he was restrained. His arms were tied over his head, and as he tried to move them he felt the cold sting of strong metal cuffs binding his wrists. An equally strong metal band was around his waist, keeping him tied to whatever was behind him. It must've been used, he realised, to hold him upright when he was out of it.

He told himself firmly not to panic. Though he undoubtedly had reason to. He'd been kidnapped, but he didn't know why. However, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Hawk had something to do with it. What they were going to do with him, he had no idea. Maybe kill him. Maybe use him as bait to attract the others. He felt the soft cotton of James' clothes still brushing against his skin when he tried to move, and it gave him a bit of comfort. The most maddening thing was the silence. All he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, and it was torturous. Were they trying to make him go mad? Seemed a villainous enough plan.

Suddenly a light appeared at the other side of the room. He squinted as it fell directly on him. Then behind his closed eyelids, he realised that the whole room had been lit up. He opened his eyes again, blinking slowly. A man stood in front of him, looking to be not much older than he was. He was tall, broad. Quite handsome, but the vibes Kendall got from him, as well as his common sense instantly told him that this man was not to be trusted under any circumstances.

"You're awake," the man greeted cheerily, his voice quite pompous. In any other situation Kendall probably would've mocked him. "That's excellent. It's always easier if you are."

Kendall glared at him, fists clenched as he tried to struggle against his bonds. "Look, whoever you are—"

"You don't know me?" the man gasped, looking terribly offended. "That's strange. Then again, I'm not very closely aquatinted with you just yet. Empath is more of a close buddy of mine."

Kendall rolled his eyes, unable to help smiling. "Oh, of course. I don't know why I didn't think of that. You're Jett. Hawk's new helper, am I right?"

"Ally," Jett corrected, teeth gritted. "I'm not a helper."

"Right, right. Silly me."

Jett stepped closer to him; uncomfortably so. Their noses almost touched as Jett reached out a hand and gently placed it on Kendall's bare thigh. Kendall flinched, glaring at him in disgust. "You're extremely attractive, Slapshot. I have heard that off one or two old friends of mine. Just a pretty face, they call you. But you're not, are you? You are much more than that, much more skilled. Much more intelligent. Much colder."

"Stop touching me."

"One of mankind's greatest flaws is our inability to resist what we find so tempting, so inviting. I'm sure you'd know plenty about that. Now." Jett took a tiny step back and gave Kendall a little space, but not enough. "It's a shame we didn't catch you all dressed up. No weapons, no leather, no nothing. But don't worry; I'm sure there's plenty for you here, we'll find something comfortable."

"I'm not joining you," Kendall scoffed, heart hammering against his chest. He could feel sweat pooling at the back of his neck.

"Oh. I apologise, it seems you've misunderstood." Jett reached out again, this time stroking Kendall's cheek. The blond shuddered. "Sweetheart . . . I'm not giving you a choice." Then he clenched his jaw and his hand shot up to the crown of Kendall's head, tightly gripping it with his palm pressed to his forehead and his thumb on his temple, pressing down. Kendall struggled feebly and tried to turn away, gasping in pain as he felt Jett' hand burn against his skin. He saw Jett's eyes, glimmering as he grinned evilly down at him. He whimpered in pain and dark spots swam in his vision, blotting Jett out.

Then his vision went dark and he heard a loud, high-pitched scream. It was his own voice.

Then he heard, and felt, nothing.


The conference room was in an uproar. All around him, redressed in his Bandana Man suit, James heard screeching and shouting and arguments being flung back and forth across the table. It all echoed oddly against his ears and he couldn't make out what any of them were saying. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to see Logan sitting beside him in his white coat, a sympathetic look on his face. James wanted to shake him off. He wanted to run away and hide in a closet somewhere and just freak out. Anything could be happening to Kendall right now, and they were just sitting here fighting over it. He now truly understood how these kinds of high authority associations tackled and solved problems.

They didn't.

"HEY." Everyone in the room suddenly, and finally, paid attention when Carlos suddenly shot a gigantic fireball across the room and it struck an empty chair that had been occupied only seconds before. "WE NEED TO ACT," he roared. "AND WE NEED TO ACT NOW."

The room was stunned into silence. "Look," Camille continued and stood up with Carlos. She clearly knew ow to handle these people better than Carlos and his anger management issues did. "One of our agents has been taken by the enemy. I will explain this simply for you. Hawk and Jett have him as their prisoner, to do whatever either of them may want with. It's likely that they'll torture him for information on our whereabouts, and on our tactics. Kendall is strong and he'll take a while to crack—"

James flinched, heart sinking further to his stomach. Crack.

"—but we've been sitting here for a while, haven't we? And it took a while for James to get here and give us his witness account. When they get the information from him, they may kill him, or keep him prisoner, or use him as bait. And guess what? They will attack us here! We have to be ready for them, and if possible, we have to make the first move!"

The others in the room, who James didn't know except for Gustavo, looked like they finally got the message. They turned to each other and started to discuss this in low voices. James gave a long sigh, turning to look at Kelly on his other side. "I'm so worried about him," he confessed to her. "I'm scared for him."

"I know," she replied softly. "I can feel it from you. My abilities, remember?"

James sighed, nodding. "I know they're all saying not to worry, he's strong and tough and blah blah blah . . . but it worries me all the more. It means they'll try harder to . . ." He stopped, biting his lip. The memory of Kendall's lips and body pressed hard against his remained fresh in his mind. It only made it all the more painful to be dealing with this. If it were up to him, he'd run out that door and do everything in his power to find where Kendall was being kept. And he'd crush anyone who stood in his way. He didn't fear any of them, not anymore. They'd taken something very dear from him.

Then of a sudden, the lights of the conference room flickered off, and a blaring alarm began to ring. James jumped to his feet, looking around as the emergency lights, lower but sufficient enough switched on, but the alarm continued to ring. "It's happening right now!" Camille shouted to the other people in the room. Some were getting up and taking out weapons if they had them, or else instantly attaching themselves to someone who did. "We're being attacked!"

"Get out there!" Gustavo retorted. "Right now! They've got mutations, you've got mutations, do the math!"

James ran out into the low lit hallway, the alarms giving him a headache. He turned himself invisible as the others ran out too. Kelly ran off and Camille followed, turning to Carlos and Logan. "You take the west side!" she ordered them. James himself was perfectly happy going alone. He sprinted off, turning the corner and almost bumping into an agent hurrying past him. He came face to face with one of the girls from before and shot her right in the face with his powers. She hit the ground the a loud thump. Take that. Bitch. He hurried past her and almost tripped over a computer stand. Then he saw the door to the storage rooms below, wide open, but dented. That made it pretty obvious that no one CIA had gone down there. He took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

Inside this storage area, it was even darker. The lights flickered above his head, buzzing spookily and sending shivers down his spine as he walked forward, feeling scattered weapons at his feet when he brushed his toes off them. He kept thinking he heard faint noises above him, behind him, all around him. And he was 90% sure someone else was there with him. He froze, listening very carefully.

Then he suddenly felt a heavy weight on his back and he slammed down onto the floor. He grunted in pain, immediately rolling over and breaking away, flying into the air before dropping down in front of his opponent. His eyes widened. It was Kendall.

He stood there in a perfect battle stance, holding a knife in his hand. His jaw was clenched, teeth bared. His eyes seemed duller, though James could hardly see his face in the low light. He felt numb. "Kendall . . .?"

Kendall shook his head, a cold smirk on his face. "It's Slapshot, actually." Then he lunged forward, knife in the air.

James leaped backwards out of the way, stumbling and sending an energy blast Kendall's way but aiming solely for his hand. The knife flew from his grasp and stuck in the wall behind him. But he seems completely unfazed and leaped forward, punching James right in the jaw. James had never been great at hand-to-hand combat, and Kendall was a master. But he had power on his side. "Kendall, what is the matter with you?!" he demanded as he blasted Kendall back yet again. He smacked off the floor before getting up again immediately and clenching his fists.

"Nothing is wrong with me," Kendall snarled. "Nothing."

"I beg to differ!" James yelled, shooting up from the ground towards the ceiling and out of Kendall's reach. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"Too bad that's not mutual." And Kendall reached to the floor, picking up what looked like a dart gun. Only when he shot it into the air towards James, the dart inside burst and filled his vision with blinding white smoke. He coughed and blindly waved his hands in front of his face. When the smoke cleared, the room was empty. James cursed and landed back on the ground, running up the steps and out of the storage room. He instantly collided with Kelly and Camille.

"We're meeting the others right now to figure out what to do," Camille told him. "Follow me."

She sprinted down the hall and the other two followed her. She stopped in front of a metal door and pressed the palm of her hand firmly against it. They slipped inside and it immediately slid shut. The door blended perfectly with the wall from the outside. She did the same thing to another door, and they walked into a room similar to the conference room they'd been in earlier. But it was much smaller and darker. Carlos and Logan and Gustavo stood around the table.

"Kendall's been turned," Logan said immediately. "I saw him."

Gustavo sighed. "It's unfortunate. I'll admit, I didn't think it would happen so quickly."

"You predicted it?" James said incredulously.

Gustavo shrugged feebly, nodding. "I imagined he'd stay where the power was. Maybe he thinks that's on Hawk"s side."

Anger built up, hot and heavy, in James' chest. He clenched his fists. "You obviously don't know him at all," he growled. "He's not a bit like that. He fights for good, not power!"

Gustavo raised his eyebrows.

"He's being controlled," James continued. "He must be!"

"You would say that."

James turned to look at Kelly. "You have feelings for him," she went on, arms folded. "It's so obvious, it would be even if I couldn't feel it from you. You'd be on his side anyway."

"That is not true!" James snapped. "And . . . f-fine, maybe I do like him, a lot. Whatever. It doesn't change my theory and it wouldn't affect it!" He turned to Camille in desperation. "You believe me, don't you?"

She sighed, looking uncomfortable. "I suppose it shouldn't be discounted . . ."

James felt alone, turned on away from everybody. But it didn't change his mind, and it didn't change his feelings.

He did, however, feel a cold dread in the pit of his stomach. What if he was wrong, and Kendall really had been turned?

Everything between them would've meant nothing.