What up ma peeps? *cricket noises* Eh, I don't even know why I even bother with AN's anymore, but whatever. Anyway, school's back in session for me, as well as a long commute to and from school that leaves me even more tired after school than before. I reallyreallyreally wanna work on this story though because I have a lot of ideas that I wanna get to before I end up forgetting about them (something I'm quite famous for). Anyway, that's my New Year's resolution. That and getting back into shape anyway. To my reviewers:

101olive4u: Glad to see someone's still excited about my work. I really hope you enjoy this next one!

ForeverTheValentine: This may be AU, but yeah it's still gotta be KND. If they were too out of character, then I might as well give them all original names and throw out an original fic... Which would probably fail since all the powers are directly referencing other shows and comic books. So yeah

Guest: That is such a huge compliment like I got all warm and fuzzy with a gigantic goofy smile on my face after reading that. Seriously, the story has to be pretty good for me to stick around even when the writer actively ships and writes a different ship than I do. So, thank you very much, you have made this procrastinating amateur writer very happy!

On with the story!

Rachel found herself clamping her eyes shut and her grip on the armrests tightening for what must have been the hundredth time. She really hated heights.

Through her deep breathing she could hear Hoagie barking out orders to his copilots; who just happened to be everyone else on the jet besides her, Wally, and Kuki. They had only just taken off through a secret landing base that tunneled through the underground of the mansion. The tunnels led to an opening on the side of a cliff leading directly over the ocean next to Gallagher. The incline had been rough even without an experienced pilot on board, though Hoagie had somehow absorbed information on previous flights through the jet's computer in order to smooth their flight as much as possible. Still didn't keep the ordeal from being completely terrifying though.

The plane finally leveled off after what felt like forever, and she sensed everyone except Hoagie and David shuffle back into their seats. She took that as the signal to slowly uncurl her body from the tense ball of nerves that it had been since a few deep breaths, she resisted the urge to start fidgeting uncomfortably in her borrowed suit.

Apparently when Nigel said, "Suit up," what he meant was, "Put on those specially designed training jumpsuits that just make you feel really self conscious." Specially designed, as in customized to fit around the wearer's powers. Mrs. G, she'd been told, had started one for her after hearing of the possibility of her joining.

Unfortunately, her suit wasn't done yet. Instead, she, Wally, and Kuki been given a suit with no added adjustments. Sure, it still had enough Kevlar padding to protect her from most basic injuries, and it came with a body temperature regulator, though it wasn't made for someone with such a drastic difference in body temperature. Nigel's, Abby had explained, was designed to keep him cooler than everyone else's, so he wouldn't overheat so easily. So even with the suit, she still found herself shivering.

On an adjacent seat, sat Nigel's cousin Belle, who had begrudgingly left her bedroom when called, but not before loudly complaining about the whole situation. Now there was a girl who didn't look like she would need to be self conscious. She was leaning back in her seat, long red hair thrown casually over her shoulder, looking like a fan service character to an action video game, the sparkly pink cell phone in her hand the only break in the illusion.

Wally sat on the other side of the plane, making no attempts to hide his curiosity of the various gadgets on his suit, nor did he seemed at all embarrassed at whichever way the suit rubbed against his neck uncomfortably. The way he pawed at the collar made him look ridiculously like a curious puppy. Kuki sat next to him sleeping rather fitfully, but sleeping nonetheless. Both had refused to stay behind at the mansion once they had heard about the rescue mission, though now they looked more like scared kids than anything.

Abby and the Wigglesteins placed themselves in various chairs, half fidgeting in their seats, trying to relax, with the other half muttering to each other what Rachel could only assume were battle strategies. Ashley seemed to be more concerned with testing her new suit, stretching out her arms and legs apprehensively, testing its limits, though she didn't seem to find any.

"How's your aim?" Nigel plopped down on the seat next to her, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Uh, okay, I guess. Why?"

Nigel, too, seemed comfortable in his suit as he casually picked up her hand, giving the wrist guard attached to the suit a sharp turn. "Right-handed?"

"Yeah?"

"This is your multi-use weapon," he explained, as a small blaster emerged from the wrist guard. "One click is a gel-like substance. It expands when it hits, trapping whatever you hit for a few minutes." He gave it another sharp twist, demonstrating. "Two clicks is a mini laser. Good for locks, doors, or whatever else you might need. Three clicks is a strong tranquilizer."

"What? No bullets?" she joked, examining the device closely.

Nigel snorted. "Nah. Non-lethal force only." Lightly, he turned her hand over, palm up, and motioned to a small red light. "That's the safety." He pressed it, which made a small tube with a button emerge and place itself comfortably in her hand. "Press to fire. Pretty simple, really." They were facing each other now, and he was taking her other hand. "Left hand is your communicator." He flipped the small switch on the side of the clunky wrist part. "This connects you to everyone else wearing a suit. Supposedly unhackable."

"Supposedly?"

"As in, no one's been able to listen in before."

"Ah."

He turned to cradle her hands. "The knuckles and toes are plated. Whoever you hit is gonna feel it way more than you. Still, hit something wrong and you can break your own hand." Back on the communicator, he hit a small button. "This is for stealth mode. It has some different camouflage presets, depending on what kind of environment you're in. Probably won't need it in this case, but it helps to know." He pointed to his own chest. "Ultra thin Kevlar lines most of the suit, but not all of it; just the major organs." He tugged at his collar, which hung almost like a turtleneck. "There's a gas mask just under your shirt. If there's anything in the air, just pull it over your mouth and nose. There's nothing really for your eyes though." He shrugged sheepishly. "After all, we just stole some training-only prototypes."

Rachel tugged on her collar to locate the mask, and then jolted into her original position as the jet began to descend in a steep angle.

"Sorry!" Hoagie called. "I got it now!" The ship righted itself before descending at a more reasonable rate.

Although he had jumped himself, Nigel was more amused at his friend's innocent mistake than anything. Rachel, on the other hand, looked terrified the way she clamped her eyes shut and held tightly to her armrests. He had an instinctual urge to hug her - why though, he didn't know - but settled for talking to her as soothingly as possible.

"Don't like flying?"

"Don't like heights," she corrected through gritted teeth. "Or the idea of falling to my death."

He tried not to snort. "We're not gonna die." Not up here anyway, he added to himself.

"I heard that," she groaned from her tense position.

Nigel grimaced, and tried to pry her fingers into a more relaxed position. After he'd gotten one, the jet landed hard, surprising him and everyone else on board.

"Sorry!" called Hoagie.

Rachel's free hand was clamped around his, and she shook a little until they completely stopped moving.

"Well," Abby said slowly, "I guess we're here, if your directions are right."

Wally got up from his seat to peer out a window. He inhaled deeply, practically tasting the faint, stale residue of metal, medicine, and unwashed bodies coming from a nondescript metal trapdoor leading to the maze of horrors that he and Kuki had escaped from only recently.

"Oh yeah, tha's it."

"Okay, so are we all clear on what to do?" said Nigel, turning on leader mode.

"Infiltrate, search, and rescue," Ogie recited.

"Take out the guards," said Ashley while David nodded.

"We find their database and destroy it," said Hoagie, motioning to Abby.

"I look for an alternate escape route through the sewage," groaned Belle. "Hopefully there's an aqueduct leading directly into the ocean; easier escape."

"Right. Move out."

"Hey!" Rachel tugged Nigel back as the others left the aircraft. "What do I do?"

Nigel grimaced. "You... You should really stay here," he said carefully. "You're not really trained, and a lot could go wrong-"

"No way! I'm not staying here while you guys go down there!"

"Listen, I wouldn't want to leave you here by yourself, but someone should stay behind to watch the ship and-"

"No! Nuh uh! No way! I'm not going to just-" Rachel paused, tensing.

"What?"

"Shush!" Honestly, she didn't know why she shushed Nigel - other than the fact that she was annoyed - but it wouldn't have made a difference either way. She heard something, but not so much with her ears as much as she was hearing it in her mind. The low hums and whispers coming from everyone else's minds had come back since she accidentally dove into Wally and Kuki's memories, but they had all faded away since they got off the ship. Now she could hear one from Nigel and... Another one. Instinctively, she reached out with her mind, and ripped open a cupboard near the cockpit telepathically.

"Tommy?!"

"Aw man!" whined a very distinct voice from the cupboard. "What'd you do that for?!"

"Tommy! What are you doing here?" Nigel snapped as he crawled out of his hiding place.

"I knew you guys needed help, so The Tommy came to your rescue!"

Nigel facepalmed as Tommy flared his homemade cape out dramatically. "We are so dead when we get home," he groaned. "Okay," he took a deep breath, "you two are staying here, and you're going to wait for the rest of us to get back, and you," he pointedly glared at Tommy, "are going to sit right there and not move until you figure out a way to explain to your mom why you're here because no way were you invited."

Almost immediately, he was bombarded with shouted protests from both parties.

"Aw, that's not fair!"

"You are not leaving me on this flying metal death trap while all of you are off risking your lives! I'm coming too!"

Nigel felt his temper flare, but the way she glared so stubbornly, looking him in the eye, and knowing that she was going to get off the ship the first chance she got. "Fine," he huffed. "Just stay close."

"Yay! I'm finally gonna get to - I mean, The Tommy is going to save those defenseless kids from-"

"You are staying here!"

"But why?!"


Hoagie knew something was wrong as soon as they opened the hidden trap door. There were signs along the hatch from previous tampering - probably from when Wally and Kuki had escaped - but it had been reinforced since then.

"Wait!" He caught Wally's wrist in midair before he slashed through the new lock. "It's an electronic lock. Hack it, and the alarm'll go off."

"Fine, now what?" Wally scowled, wrenching his hand back.

Hoagie kneeled, his fingers gingerly tracing the outer shell of the locking mechanism, absorbing the information. "If I can just get it to think that the key code was punched in… Ah ha!" With a small spark from his hands, there was a small beep, and the hatch swung open.

The passage was dim and cool, and completely silent. Silent even to Hoagie. "Why aren't there any security cameras?" he muttered quietly. "Or sensors?" This place was giving him the creeps. Something about this was totally off.

"Who cares?" Wally trotted forward. "Come on, Ah'm gonna find those cruddy doctors an' they're gonna pay for what they-"

"Wait!" Hoagie's senses suddenly caught wind of the machinery, causing a painful jolt in this heart. "Wait! There's a-"

Abby reacted first.

BAMF!

She appeared piggybacked on Wally, wrapping her arms around his torso, and disappeared again.

BAMF!

They both reappeared next in between Kuki and Ashley, Wally so disoriented that he fell over.

"This whole hallway's been boobytrapped," Hoagie explained as Wally glared at him from the ground, "with metal detectors."

The dawn of realization seemed to come over Wally last, as he finally glanced down at his hands, and the space between his knuckles where his claws shot out. His realization quickly turned into a scowl as he made a fist. "Then Ah guess Ah gotta find them before they find meh." He started forward again, only to smack into an invisible wall.

"Hold on a second, Sport, we can't just give away our only advantage. Element of surprise is all we got. Can ya turn 'em off?" Abby raised her eyebrows at Hoagie.

"This many? Only for a minute or two. I think the security's only in this entrance, but we still need to move fast."

Abby nodded. "So we're splittin' up into teams. Where are we goin'?"

Wally was still scowling, but took a deep breath through his nose, trying to sort out the different trails that people had left all over the compound. "Tha biggest holding place is straight ahead. It's the room with all tha cages. It's in tha exact middle of this whole cruddy place." He took another breath, this time focusing on the smell of blood and chemicals. "There'll probably be more to the left. Tha's where they take MPs to be experimented on. Roight next to it is where all tha scientists' offices are. Ah haven't been through the whole place, so Ah dunno what's on the roight, but there's probably still more MPs everywhere."

Abby nodded, and turned her head as Nigel and Rachel finally caught up to them in the hallway,

"Okay, we're splittin' up. You four," she gestured to Belle, Ashley, Bruce, and David, "go right. Find whoeva ya can, and try ta find another exit. You four," to Kuki, Wally, Ogie, and Lenny, "Go left. And the rest of us'll go straight, Find as many mutants as you can, and stay out of sight. We don't need this whole place goin' under lockdown on us. This is still a search 'n rescue."

Everyone nodded with matching flatline expressions, Wally with a scowl.

"Ready, baby?"

"I think so." Hoagie's brow furrowed as he reached out, making sure he touched upon every single last piece of security. "Get ready to run on three. One, two, three!"


Wally was already forming a plan to separate from his group as Hoagie counted down. His plan, he thought as he raced down the long, sterile hallway with Kuki and the other two from the mansion, didn't reach as far as escaping, just taking as many people down as possible. After all, he thought as he picked up one heavy foot after the other, the others would do fine with rescuing without him. If it were up to them, they'd be in and out of the place before anyone there even knew what hit them. No. No they had to pay for what they did. He continued scowling as he and the other three got far down enough to where it should be safe. The other groups were already out of sight and the whole place was once again silent, save for the panting from him and his new "teammates."

Lenny was the first to straighten up. He readjusted his goggles on his head for the buhmillionth time before silently nodding towards the doorway. The doors slid open automatically with a futuristic whoosh sound that Wally secretly thought was sooper cool. On the other side, they met their first fork in the road.


Nigel and Abby led the charge down the middle hallway with Rachel following closely behind and Hoagie trailing them farther back. The three of them stopped at what Hoagie had said was the safe distance so they wouldn't set off any alarms, only to turn and find Hoagie struggling to catch up, out of breath from the run and from concentrating on keeping the sensors from going off. Huffing and puffing as he went he seemed to get painfully slower until he was about to stop, still too far away from the rest of the group.

BAMF!

BAMF!

Hoagie stood doubled over over trying to catch his breath as he and Abby reappeared next to their safe point.

"Hands over your head," both Abby and Nigel chastised at the same time.

Hoagie snarled something unintelligible, but complied, leaning back against a wall.

"Are we good?" Nigel asked as soon as he stopped wheezing.

"I think so."

"Let's go then."


When Wally and Kuki described this hellish place as a maze, David didn't realize how accurate the description was until he led his group down their designated hallway and promptly ran into a fork, every direction looking exactly the same, including the one they just came through.

"This may be harder than I thought," he muttered to himself. The little hairs on the back of his neck prickled as he warily scanned the adjoining hallways. Still no one in sight. "Bruce, can you pick up anything?"

For once, the shorter boy skipped the not-so-witty response, and knelt to the floor, palm flat on the ground. "This place is huge! There's so many hallways and rooms, it's actually making me dizzy." He shook his head as if to clear it. "But we're pretty close to the edge of the compound, still. There's a big empty space somewhere underneath us leading east. I think it's the sewage." He stood up. "I can't tell how exactly to get down there, but-" He stopped so suddenly that David wondered if he somehow got hit with something. "Someone's coming!"

David tensed. "From where?"

"There!" The hallway straight ahead. Without thinking, he grabbed the nearest person - who just happened to be Ashley, and took off running to the left, hoping that no one was coming through that way as well, and hoping that Bruce would be able to tell if they were.

He and Ashley rounded a corner before stopping, and looked back in horror to see that instead of following, Belle and Bruce had taken off in the opposite direction. They too, peeked out from behind a corner, making alarmed gesticulations, silently trying to signal without attracting attention.

The people coming down the center hallway moved slowly and stopped at the intersection between them, looking down at their clipboards and muttering to each other in low voices.

David frowned, looking back and forth between Ashley at his side and at Belle and Bruce. After a moment, he made a waving motion, signaling for them to go on. Wearing matching worried expressions, they both nodded and ran off out of sight. He and Ashley made a silent agreement to turn and keep going as well, hoping against hope that they wouldn't run into anyone now that they were running in blind.


Kuki found herself shivering despite all the running she was doing. Despite how she and Wally had been able to navigate a way out of this seemingly silent and empty maze by themselves, their return had been sufficiently harder. The compound, which had already been confusing enough when being escorted around by guards, had turned impossible to navigate through, even without Wally. Come to think of it, finding a clear path was seemed to have been made harder because of Wally.

Even with his enhanced sense of smell, he seemed to be leading them around in circles, confused by the constant movement. As time went by, she sensed him getting increasingly frustrated.

"Ah think we should split up."

"What? Why?"

"'Cause we'll find more mutants that way," said Wally, as if that settled it.

Ogie gaped open-mouthed while Lenny raised his eyebrows and scratched his head. "We haven't even found one yet."

"Yeah we have," said Wally, a little too brightly for Kuki to be convinced. "They're through tha' door roint there." He pointed towards the end of the hallway that they were on.

"Okay, then let's go." Lenny started forward, Ogie following behind, staying close enough together to herd Wally forward with them. "All of us."

Wally growled something unintelligibly before rearing back and body slamming Lenny as hard as he could and sprinting away down the opposite hall.

"Wally, wait!" Kuki leaped over Lenny's sprawled form and took off running after him, to do what, she wasn't exactly sure.

Lenny groaned as he sat up, Ogie helping him.

"Hey! You! Hold it right there!"

Lenny and Ogie froze.


"Okay." Pant, pant. "I think," pant, "this," pant, "this is it." Hoagie and Rachel were doubled over at yet another intersection.

"And you're both sure about this?"

"Y-yeah." Pant. "All the electrical feedback is pointing at the very end of this hall."

"And I'm getting a lot of brain wave feedback pointing down that way," Rachel pointed down the opposite way.

"Okay, so now we split up. Abby, you and Hoagie find the control room and shut down the whole security system. If all goes well, we'll be able to get all the mutants out without anyone even aware we're here 'til it's too late. Rachel and I will start rescuing mutants."

Nigel and Abby nodded. "Right." They took off running in opposite directions while Hoagie and Rachel stared after them in disbelief, still doubled over.

Rachel turned her look to Hoagie. "What is wrong with these people?"

"Believe me, I've been asking myself that question for a long time."

Abby and Nigel ran back, grabbed their partner's hands, and sprinted back with them in tow.


David made a third consecutive right turn with still no one besides him and Ashley in sight.

"Well, I'd say that we're doing well," Ashley said in between deep breaths, "except that we've almost gone in a complete circle and we still have no idea where we are, where we're going, or how to get where we need to go. But other than that, yay us."

David rolled his eyes. "Well I don't hear you giving any suggestions."

Ashley grimaced. "I can't even think. This place is like, so creepy, and you'd think we'd run into someone by now, even by accident."

"Yeah, it's so weird. It's like there's only a few people in this whole compound."

"Okay, but like Kuki and Wally said-"

The door behind them suddenly slid open, and they suddenly realized that if the person behind it hadn't been looking down at a clipboard, they would've been caught.

David jumped as high as he could - the added spring load that came from his enhanced strength coming in handy - his fingertips only barely grazing the high ceiling, which was luckily enough to stick. He swung himself up and managed to make contact with the ceiling with his toes. Palms flat on the ceiling, he crouched upside down, thankful that Mrs. G had modified his boots so he could still stick to surfaces.

Ashley had taken the strange man's moment of distraction to stretch and bend over backwards, aligning herself to outline the door frame.

David found himself impressed at her perfect form and the way she held completely still, not even physically strained, though he could see that her suit was already straining to keep her form. He silently leaped down from his hiding place the same time that Ashley retracted herself to her natural form, and they both cautiously backed into the door that the man had just come through. They didn't dare to release their breaths until the door swished shut, leaving them alone.

They turned to see that they hadn't wandered into yet another nondescript hallway, but into a spacious room filled with various weaponized gadgets. David felt his eyes go wide as Ashley's jaw dropped.

"What. The. Crud?"

He made his way around the various tables and walls with partially familiar gadgets meticulously organized. "So that's why they've kidnapped so many mutants," he whispered. "They're using their powers to make weapons."

Ashley shivered from her end of the room as she peered over each table, every weapon looking more dangerous than the last. "There's like, so many. And it's all so- Ouch!" Her eyes widened and she clapped both hands over her mouth, hoping that no one passing by outside had heard her.

"What's wrong?" David called from where he was, once he was sure that no one had been alerted.

"I hit my knee on this stupid thing," she gasped, trying to sooth the aching bone. "If you're gonna organize the crud out of all your weapons of doom, why would you leave one on the floor?" she snarled, gritting her teeth. "I mean like, how long could it possibly take to just pick it up-" She grasped a long handle, a little too wide for her hand, and attempted to wrench it up, only to find that it wouldn't budge. "Hey!" She jerked harder with still no movement. "The crud? Hey, David, look at this!"

The first thing David noticed as he approached Ashley was the floor. While this room, along with the rest of the compound that he'd seen so far, had been coated with smooth, solid concrete floors. The area where Ashley was standing, was broken up, as if the room had been built around this specific spot, and the construction workers had simply chosen to neglect coating this specific spot, leaving a small patch of dirt of with a two foot radius, with something sticking out.

The part Ashley had been grasping looked distinctly like a handle, which pointed to something embedded in the ground. To what exactly, he wasn't sure. Odd, considering the nature of the rest of the compound, and the flawless construction of the place. Why didn't they just pull this out during construction?

Curiosity getting the better of him, he took Ashley's position and braced himself, using his enhanced strength, and found that he couldn't move it. At all. He gave it three more tries, fruitlessly struggling to get it to at least budge, and finding that it wouldn't. He gritted his teeth. "We're wasting time."

After watching David struggle, Ashley shifted her interest elsewhere. There was a single table almost hidden behind all the others in a corner, that appeared so cluttered and disorganized that it peaked her interest. "What the crud is this junk?"

"Who cares? We need to go." He pressed his ear to the door and struggled to hear if there was anyone on the other side.

"But look." She picked up what looked like a thick piece of rope. "Like, why would this stuff be here?"

"Ashley," David hissed, "We need to go before we get caught."

"And this," she continued as if she hadn't heard him. "It looks like a shield." She flicked it, listening to the sound it made. "I wonder what it's made of."

He stomped over to her as she picked up yet another bewildering piece of junk, intending to drag her onward, or carry her away over his shoulder if necessary. "Come on! We need to go!"

"Or th- LOOK OUT!" Ashley tackled him, knocking him over sideways as a bright orange laser beam only barely missed him, hitting a wall and leaving a charred black spot where his head would have been.

The moment his back hit the floor, his training had kicked in. Ashley hadn't waited for them to make contact to roll away and dart behind a nearby table. He followed suit, diving behind a table in the opposite direction. Though slightly winded from the fall, he could already see the effects of the intense training and its effect on his muscle memory. He quickly ducked his head around the corner of the table before jerking back, trying to at least get a look at what they were up against.

Five guards all of them heavily armed, with more coming in. It took him a moment to spot Ashley, and get her attention. Her eyes darted back and forth between him and the guards. He held up five fingers, and then made a series of fluid movements, instructing her on what to do.

She set her mouth in a straight line and nodded grimly. It really wasn't much of a plan. Silently, she slid down so she was lying flat on her belly, and extended an arm across the floor slowly, hoping that the guards were looking towards David's position. She grimaced as the guards started moving forward cautiously. Her hand snaked upwards along the edge of a table, and she found herself biting down hard on her lip as she felt along the top. Her hand bumped up against something metallic and spherical. Steadying her breath, she stretched her hands so her fingers wrapped themselves around it, and other similar objects nearby. While normally, one would fit in her palm, she held onto five.

Running out of time now as the guards were almost upon David's hiding place, she retracted her arm a little faster than before. The little sphere left her feeling uneasy, as they looked too simple to be weapons; just simple chrome spheres with a single button poking out from one side. She picked up one, hoping that it was an explosive, pressed the button, and tossed it into the air.

She didn't know how long she had before it went off, but she tried keeping the rest from going off at the same time by squishing herself down into a ball around them and rolling away. The explosion itself wasn't particularly spectacular, but the shock wave sent her and everyone else flying. She slammed into a wall hard enough to knock the wind out of her, but it provided the distraction they needed.

The guard nearest to David recovered first, and pointed his laser gun at him. David seized the guard by the wrist with one hand, pushing him back and twisting his arm to keep his aim unsteady. He stood slowly, using his other hand to pick up the guard off of his feet, and hurl him into the rest of his squadron.

The guards grunted, but still staggered up. Ashley abandoned the spheres where she landed, flipping herself over a table and using her momentum to make contact with one of them with both of her feet. He went down quickly, not expecting her attack. She grabbed his weapon, and used her arm like a whip to get a good swing at the next guard behind her. One snuck up behind her, bear-hugging her and trapping her arms… or at least he thought he did. Ashley felt her spline elongate as she stretched and wrapped her whole body around the guard like a straight jacket, all the while feeling the strain from her suit trying to keep up with her.

She felt rather than saw one of the guards recover and aim his gun at her while she was still wrapped around another. She saw his finger around the trigger when a sticky web-like substance stuck itself on the edge of the barrel before yanking it away. The momentum behind the jerk caused the guard to fall forward into a plated fist.

"Don't! Touch! My! Sister!" David snarled in between various kicks and flips, disarming and immobilizing as he went. He shot his web at a guard's foot and used it to sweep him off of his feet at the same time that Ashley had managed the same thing with her remaining guard, causing them to crash directly into each other, and finally crumpling on the floor.

Ashley doubled over, not exactly panting, but trying to get a hold of her nerves, adrenaline coursing through her. She wasn't sure what prompted her to do so - probably the adrenaline alongside the hyper-awareness that came with getting into a fight - but she lashed out her arm, and grabbed the shield that she had been examining, and flung it towards David like an upright hula hoop. The timing was perfect as yet another guard appeared at the door, and fired at the both of them. David was still in the process of realizing what was happening, and Ashley saw in slow motion a beam shooting straight towards him, and the shield spinning and stalling directly in front of him, causing the beam to bounce away. At that same moment, she felt whatever they were shooting with hit her, and the world started playing back at normal speed again.

Whatever they shot at her hurt much less than she expected, and she felt her energy drain away at record time, causing her vision to go dark. The last thing she was aware of was David yelling out, "No!" before he too, was hit with a tranquilizer, and collapsed.


Bruce brought down yet another hallway behind him as he ran, the solid concrete ceiling and floor cracking and collapsing as he moved past them, blocking his pursuers' way. Soon after he and Belle had separated from the rest of the group, they'd been discovered. As far as he could tell, the only alarm they'd set off didn't extend to the whole base, but only to nearby guards, which seemingly materialized around every twist and turn.

He avoided using his powers for as long as possible, hoping to lose them, but that plan backfired almost immediately as they only started gaining on them. Finally, he urged Belle forward to where he thought she could find a way into the sewage system, and stayed behind to deter anyone from following.

Now he couldn't find Belle and he'd gotten himself lost. This place is too cruddy big, he thought to himself for the gajillionth time. He started running down random hallways, hoping that the illogical choices made him harder to predict and to track.

He sprinted past another turn, barely missing more guards searching for him, and shot into what he sensed as a room, and waited impatiently for the doors to close behind him, his back to the wall, panting. It only took him two seconds to realize that he wasn't alone.

Oh crud. There was a painful sting, and everything went black.


Immediately after hearing that cry, Lenny jolted up after painfully slamming to the ground - Seriously, what is that Wally kid's problem?! - and pulled Ogie by the hand through the nearest door. The guards behind them had already started shooting, but were unprepared for Ogie putting up a force field around them as they ran. As the door closed, Lenny whipped out his laser from his wrist guard to seal the doors shut. He wasn't sure how long it'd last, but it was better than nothing.

"What is the meaning of this?! I demanded that this room wouldn't be disturbed!" Lenny and Ogie whipped around to see a single scientist-looking man shouting without looking up. "This is an outrage! Why did you…" He trailed off as he realized that his intruders were actually a couple of fourteen-year olds rather than guards. The scientist froze for a moment before shooting a glance at an office phone at his desk. He lunged for it, but seemed to stop in midair as Ogie created a force field around him, and moving him away from the phone.

"What do we do with him?" she asked mildly, watching the man pound his fists against the inside of the field.

"Uh…"

"I mean we could make him help us, but we'd have to find a place to hold him so he doesn't turn us in."

"Uh…"

"Or maybe we could use him as a hostage? You know, so we can at least get out of this room."

"Uhhh…"

"Lenny?"

He pointed to somewhere off behind her, and as she turned, she gasped in shock and almost lost her concentration. The room they had wandered into seemed to be organized like a hospital out of nightmares. Tools either hung on the walls or were laid out neatly on trays, all of them painful-looking and more out of a horror movie than out of an actual hospital.

The most horrifying part of the scene though, were the long operation tables evenly spaced from wall to wall, each with a body on it.

Lenny turned a light shade of green and approached as Ogie gaped open-mouthed, "Are they…?"

Keeping a reasonable amount of distance, Lenny hesitantly approached the nearest table. On it was a boy, roughly his own age, laid flat on his back, eagle spread. Next to his table's slab were two hanging bags which were connected to him via IVs. One seemed to be pumping some kind of liquid into the veins in his wrist, and the other was plugged into one of his nostrils. The boy's chest slowly rose and fell as if he were in some sort of deep, medicated sleep, unwillingly breathing in whatever was in the second bag.

"They're alive," he called back to Ogie. "They're just sleeping."

Ogie shivered, but glared at the scientist still trapped. "Can you wake them up?"

"I think so." Lenny crouched beside the two tanks and frowned. Standing back up, he studied the boy's wrist for a second. "I'm just gonna pull out the needle." He cautiously reached out and touched his wrist, hoping that that in itself would be enough to wake him up. No such luck; needles made him queasy.

Steeling himself, he gently pulled out the needle and dropped it, letting the liquid steadily drip out of it. The boy stirred, but didn't become conscious. The stir turned into a toss and turn, and he began to thrash where he lay, as if he were having a bad nightmare. Lenny attempted to pull out the one from his nose but ended up getting smacked by a flailing arm so hard he careened sideways, stars clouding his vision.

"Lenny! Are you okay?"

"'Mm fide," he said thickly, only a little humiliated.

Before the boy's arm came around again, he grabbed the remaining tube and yanked it hard. The boy jolted up in a sitting position, breathing heavily, eyes wide for a second before slouching down, exhausted. "Where am I?" he said drowsily. "How'd I get here? Why am I-" His gaze landed on the trapped scientist. "You!" he snarled thickly. "You did this! You-" He clapped his hands over his eyes. "What's wrong with me?"

Lenny and Ogie exchanged a look. "Listen, we're here to get you all out of here. We're going to wake the rest of them up, and then we're gonna figure something out."

"'Kay," he muttered, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

Lenny continued to the next table and the next, unplugging the people laying there, albeit more carefully than before. In total there were six boys and four girls, all sluggishly stretching and stumbling to their feet, most of them his and Ogie's age, with a couple exceptions, one of which brought a sour taste to both of their mouths.

There was a resounding bang from the other side of the sealed door and the metal crumpled slightly. Lenny set his mouth in a straight line, glancing at it and at the ten mutants they'd just found, some able to stand upright, others leaning to each other for support. The scientist still trapped in Ogie's bubble had gone pale and held perfectly still, as if trying to keep himself as unnoticeable as possible now that his "patients" were awake.

"Okay, so here's the plan," he said after a moment. "I'm gonna smash this door open, Ogie here is gonna hold off the guards as long as possible, and you're all gonna make a run for it."

"To where?" asked the first boy that Lenny roused, now supporting another boy.

"Good question," Lenny muttered. "Come on, get ready to run," he instructed, lowering his goggles over his eyes. "One, two… three!"

As far as obstacles went, this one wasn't so bad. The door crumpled into a heap upon impact, and the guards standing on the other side provided some cushion to the landing. Lenny was still skidding to a halt when he felt all the mutants sprint and stumble past him, hindered by their lethargy and their too-big fluorescent jumpsuits. He shook his head, only slightly dizzy before Ogie yanked him up by the hand, dragging him into a run with her. He fell into step with her and chased after the other mutants, Ogie occasionally turning to throw a shield around their pursuers, causing them to crash to a stop.


"Wally! Wait up!" Kuki called for the buhmillionth time in between gasping breaths.

Wally rounded yet another corner, not showing any hint of wanting to slow down. He mentally cursed Kuki for continuing to follow him instead of turning back to the others. She had to understand why he was going out of his way to punish those that were responsible for all this, for him. Instead she pressed on, slowly but surely gaining on him.

"Stupid, cruddy sheila," he growled to himself, rounding another corner at the last second, the scent he was tracking getting stronger by the second. He wasn't exactly sure where he was anymore, but if he had to venture a guess based on the scent of metal and sterile suits, he'd guess that he was getting close to the lab where they injected him with that cruddy metal.

He skidded to a halt in front of a door where the scent ended. He felt his fangs push their way out as he let out a very primal growl. This is it. All the anger and resentment and sense of vulnerability that had been building up since he was kidnapped seemed to build into a white hot rage in the pit of his stomach, aching to be released.

At that very moment, Kuki careened around a corner and slammed right into him, knocking him over. Wally groaned in pain when he and Kuki hit the floor; he still wasn't used to hearing that echo whenever he hit his head.

"Sorry," Kuki mumbled, struggling to get up off of him.

Wally felt himself turn red for some unknown reason, and grudgingly took her hand when she offered it. Cruddy sheila.

"Wally, I know what you're planning on doing," she stated, eyeing him carefully, "and it's a super dooper bad idea. So let's go back and find the others, okay?"

He scowled. "Nuh uh! No way! Ah'm gonna find those evil dorks and Ah'm gonna make 'em pay!"

Kuki gave him a look that said that she expected that response. She sighed, "Fine. Then I'm coming with you."

Wally groaned irritably. "Fine! Just stay outta ma way!" Kuki nodded, intending to do anything but. The doors slid open and Wally once again hid the urge to remark on how cool they were. His jaw dropped as soon as he realized his mistake.

"Those cruddy blokes aren't even here."

Instead of the foul-scented lab where he'd been experimented on, he and Kuki found themselves in the central holding unit, where the mutants were kept in cages.

"But I thought you said…"

"Yeah, Ah thought Ah did."

The guards had all mysteriously disappeared, and all those in cages were slumped over in defeat, knowing that it wouldn't matter whether or not they were being watched.

"Kuki? Is that you?" Kuki looked over to the cage closest to her. "How are you here? They told us that you escaped."

"We did," she said, placing her hand over the boy's in the cage. "We came back to free you all."

Wally felt his stomach turn seeing the familiarity between the two, noticing the empty cage next to his. That must've been her cage.

The boy looked over at him hopefully, and Wally nodded, unsheathing his claws. "Listen up!" he yelled, his voice echoing. "This here's a jailbreak!" He ran with both arms outstretched on either side of him, his claws breaking through the bars and locks of each cage.


Belle encountered yet another fork in the road, both generally pointing east. She groaned aloud, and played a quick game of Eenie, Meanie, Minie, Mo before continuing onward, dirty water rising from her ankles to her knees as she followed her chosen sewage tunnel.

The tunnels were dark and cold and disgusting, but she followed along, hoping that she picked the right way, and that the others would be able to find the X's that she marked along the way with her laser. She walked until she reached another fork, and then tried her communicator again.

"Crud. Still no signal." She growled deep in her throat. "Eenie, Meanie, Minie, Mo."

"You do know there are better ways to navigate, right?"

Belle screamed, whirling around and pointing her laser to the figure behind her.

"Don't shoot!" said the voice.

"Don't move!" she snarled, aiming for him. "Who are you?"

"Me?" said the voice with a snarky snap to it. "I'm one of the guys you came to rescue."


"Nigel, wait. Something's wrong."

Nigel froze. "What is it?"

Rachel shook her head. "I don't know. I feel like I'm hearing the others all of a sudden. I think David and Ashley are in trouble." She rubbed her temples. "I think they've been through here already, and something went wrong."

"Through here? Are you sure?"

Rachel grimaced. "No, I'm not sure. But I have a really strong feeling that they were." Nigel gave her what looked like a very doubtful look. "I know it sounds crazy, but I just know, okay?"

"Okay," he said finally. "So what do we do about it?"

Although being unused to taking control, she found herself with the answer before she knew she had it. "It's coming from the same direction we're headed in already. We go forward."

Nigel nodded, and they resumed their half-jog, half-fast walk farther down the hall in silence. Rachel had expected to have started freaking out at some point this far along in their mission, but she found herself steeled and determined instead.

"Here," she said suddenly. "Stop." They stopped at a door looking like any other, except that she could feel a connection to David and Ashley coming from inside. "There's something in here."

The door slid open and Nigel cautiously entered first, a fireball already blazing in the palm of his hand. Rachel followed closely behind, confident that there was no one inside, but still glad for the company and security of having someone else with her. He powered down as soon as he was sure that they were alone, and Rachel followed her senses deeper in.

"What the crud is all this?"

"It looks like weapons." Rachel moaned aloud as another headache overcame her. "And not just any weapons," she said, massaging her temples. "This is what David and Ashley found. They're using the kidnapped mutants' powers to make these weapons."

Nigel gingerly picked up a dented chrome sphere with a big button poking out of it. "This is getting way more dangerous than I thought it would be. First kidnapping and experiments, and now this. How is this just a simple search and rescue when there's bloody scientists making-"

"Shh!" Rachel clapped a hand over his mouth. "Someone's coming!"

Nigel tensed, feeling his power surge again as he summoned another fireball and readied himself to attack if need be, though hoping that whoever it was would just pass right by them. He felt uneasy about being in the middle of an actual fight with Rachel there with him. Still, she picked up the closest thing to her - a rope (what the crud?) - and pressed her back to the door frame, waiting.

A few seconds ticked by until he could hear a set of footsteps coming closer to their hiding place, They sounded hurried and uneven, as if whoever it was had a bad limp. The footsteps kept coming closer and he could hear Rachel take a deep breath and hold it as they came closer.

Nigel was already incredibly tense as he started being able to differentiate the footsteps into two different people walking together, when Rachel suddenly yelled, "Wait!" and nearly caused him to jump out of his skin. Before he could stop her, she stepped out so the door automatically opened for her, and she poked her head out to those approaching. "Patton! Bartie!" She pulled two figures into their hiding place roughly by the necks of their shirts, and they both nearly collapsed as she let go and the doors closed behind them.

"What the-?"

"Rachel?"

The two boys swiveled around dizzily, and the dirty blond-haired one nearly fell backwards off of his friend's supporting shoulder.

"Guys! What are you doing here?"

"Should as' ya the same thing," the dirty blond said, rubbing his eyes groggily.

"We were kidnapped and brought here," said the taller, dark-haired, good-looking one, who looked more awake than his friend. "They've been keeping us in some sort of sleep because their cages weren't enough to hold us. These two kids found us and woke us up and told us to run. Bartie and I 've been wandering around trying to find a way out, but everyone split up and ran, so now we have no idea where we are." He paused, and rubbed his eyes and yawned widely. "They woke me up first, so I'm not as bad as some of the rest of them are." He yawned again. "But whatever they gave us, it was strong." He stopped as if something had just occurred to him. "Wait, did they grab you too?"

"What? No! No, I was recruited to a school for people like us. I found out about this place from two other kids who escaped, and now we're here to rescue you." Despite herself, she found herself briefly hugging the both of them.

"We?" Bartie said, obviously trying to stay awake and in the conversation.

"Yeah, we. Guys, this is Nigel. He's one of the guys from the school. Nigel, this is Patton and Bartie, by two best friends from Mozart's."

Nigel felt an unwelcome twinge of jealousy when Rachel hugged the two boys from her bedroom photos, which he knew was crazy, but still hit home. Now that she knew where her friends were the whole time that she hadn't had any contact from the outside world, who knew if she'd even want to come to the Institute once this whole mess was over?


As he and Abby ventured farther and farther ahead, Hoagie found himself relying on his power of transporting through metal more invaluable than ever. He moved through the metal pipes attached to the walls, following the source of the electric current, with Abby periodically disappearing and reappearing alongside him at every intersection.

BAMF!

BAMF!

"Are we even gettin' close?" she asked, trying to keep the edge out of her voice.

"I think so. There's a current running right through here."

"Listen, Abby doesn't wanna get you all offended, but are you even sure we're headin' the right way?" she said testily. "'Cause I mean, we've just been headin' in this gen'ral direction for foreva."

"Yes, I'm sure," he snapped. "I'm sure that the control room is farther down this way the same way that I'm sure that there's nothing here for you to be worried about."

"Say wha-?" Hoagie's head whipped around so fast that Abby's basic instincts took over before even she fully realized what she was doing.

BAMF!

Following Hoagie's line of sight, Abby teleported directly in front of a guard that had snuck up on them, aiming some sort of gun where she'd been standing only a second before. She used her advantage of surprise to quickly knock the gun from his hand, and then spun to aim a roundhouse kick as high as her foot could reach.

BAMF!

She teleported behind him, leg sweeping his legs out from under him.

BAMF!

She towered over him, removing his headgear, and teleported again before he could reach out to grab her.

BAMF!

She leaned over him in such a way that she appeared upside down to him. Both of her bare hands cradled his face, and the guard felt his energy inexplicably leave him as she stared down at him distastefully.

Abby stood once the guard was unconscious, giving a quick once over to make sure he wasn't hit at some point. "More'll be comin'. We gotta go."

"Too late," Hoagie grunted, as he saw more guards approaching the same way that the previous one did.

Abby turned and took on a fighting stance, already strategizing how she was going to take down the bunch.

BAMF!

She grabbed one by his gun arm, sapping enough of the bone's calcium, and snapped his wrist just as he fired.

BAMF!

She appeared in midair, kneeing another in the chin, snapping his head backwards.

BAMF!

She kicked the same guard behind the knee, bringing him down into a kneel. She spun again.

BAMF!

Her spinning roundhouse kick hit the third guard on the side of the head.

BAMF!

She teleported back to Hoagie's side. "Come on!" She shoved him in the chest, as he only stood gaping.

Just as they both turned to disappear again, Hoagie heard a very distinct click. Against his training and better judgement, he turned around to see the first guard Abby attacked, the one with the now broken wrist, had reached into his boot and pulled out a mini pistol and aimed it straight at him. And against his training and better judgement, he stayed rooted to one stop, suddenly terrified as he watched in slow motion as the guard cocked the gun and tightened his finger over the trigger.

Abby turned around at the last second, and acting out on pure instinct, jumped directly in front of him as the gun went off. The impact caused Abby to fall backwards into him before crumpling to the floor.

Sound itself seemed to have shut off as soon as she made her move. Hoagie dropped down to his knees as she fell, sure that he was making some sort of strangled sobbing sound, but it didn't register to his ears. Abby's dark eyes had a glassy look to them as they stared blankly at the ceiling above her.

The guards, finally regaining their senses, stood and staggered over, weapons raised. Hoagie, only partially aware of their presence, felt tears running down his face in stinging rivers, wordlessly crying out to his friend. His heart was beating in his chest painfully hard, and he felt himself shudder as his body fazed in and out of his solid form. Electricity crackled through the air and his hair stood straight up. He sensed one guard approach steadily, his tranquilizer gun raised towards him.

A hot sense of uncontrollable rage enveloped him suddenly. Kneeling down next to one of his best friends after she took a bullet for him, and having her shooters still come for him, as if her sacrifice didn't matter, as if it didn't even happen, it was too much. The overwhelming anger at them, at all of them took hold, and Hoagie felt rather than heard himself yelling wordlessly as the electricity was sucked and shot back out of him from every direction in a crazed show of power. Bolts struck out at everything and everyone, frying and electrocuting everything they touched.

His yell died down into a hoarse cry until he ran out of breath, the already dim hallways going almost completely dark when the lightning fried all the circuits of the overhead lights. His head bowed as sweat from the effort broke out over his forehead. He didn't care though. He found himself unconsciously hugging Abby's limp shoulders as he let out a strangled sob.

Her head fell back with the lack of support, and the wound became clearly visible. The bullet had gone through just over the protective piece of the Kevlar, a really lucky shot. Suddenly angry at the bullet itself, he let go of her with one arm, and started digging it out of her with his bare hand. The process was disgusting and disturbing, and her blood left stains on his fingers and down the rest of her suit, but he didn't care. After some struggling, he finally felt the tiny piece of metal and lead, and yanked it out. It was smaller than he expected, and he let it clatter to the ground once he got a good look at it. He hugged her close again, feeling himself shaking as he did so, not realizing that the wound started sealing itself shut once the bullet was removed.

So first of all, I couldn't help but write out Hoagie's flying skills as Ron Wilson from Sky High. I mean, I know that in the show he's an accomplished pilot, but was he always that way? I think not, and I think it's funnier this way. I also have this headcannon that he is a terrible athlete when he gets older. I mean, in Operation KISS, we see that he loses his "baby fat," but I like to think that he's still not an athlete, and I think it'd be funny if he had someone else to share his frustrations with about his friends' abilities to just keep going.

I also added in a few references to other superhero stuff. Ashley bending over backwards around the door frame was from The Incredibles, the way that the mutants were being held unconscious is from Heroes, (though if you never actually got that far into it, I don't blame you since that show went on a downward spiral very quickly), and in Wolverine: Origins, Logan opened up the cages where the mutants were being held by just running in between them with his claws out. Say what you want about that movie, but that mental image stuck with me.

Also, I've been writing this chapter for months now in between homework and class and work and life, and usually when I'm exhausted and my brain is fried from all the homework, class, work, and life, so if it feels or sounds off, that's why. That, and because my laptop doesn't have Word, I've been typing this up on Google Drive, where spell-check and grammar-check isn't automatic.

So, holy crap this was a long one. I didn't think it would be that long, but I tried to write it out how I saw it in my head, and as you may or may not have noticed, I can't write a fight scene to save my life. I tried though, I really did, but I really can't write fight scenes. That's just a fact of life. And there was a lot going on to where I had to keep going back and forth in between scenes to fix any continuity errors (I'm sure there's still a lot, but at least there are less now), and I actually had to make a chart for myself so I could keep track of what was going on and what was supposed to happen. I may have gotten off track at some points, but oh well. For having worked on it the most the week before finals, I think it came out pretty good.

Or maybe not. Let me know in the reviews! And wish me luck on my finals, that I at least survive them!