CHAPTER 49
CATCHING UP
November 28, 2010
3:42pm
Galway, Ireland
Airport
Alex and Jeremiah exited the plane and went to collect their luggage at baggage claim, all the while on the look out for Adam, Benny, and Steve. It was Jeremiah who spotted Adam first. Grabbing Alex's hand Jeremiah, quietly led her over to where Adam was casually leaning up against the wall next to a boy in a wheel chair, and a tall blonde haired man in a leather duster.
Alex breath caught when she realized that the boy in the wheelchair was Benny. It was one thing knowing that her brother had been cloned, it was entirely something else to actually see that Pete had been cloned.
Pete and Benny shared the same features, which considering the fact that Benny was a clone of Pete was not surprising. Benny's dark brown hair was longish, falling a few inches past his ears curling slighting at the bottom. His almond shaped blue eyes were hidden by his long thick lashes, and there was a spray of freckles across his nose. He looked exactly like Pete, though there were a few differences almost unnoticeable to any one who didn't look at Pete on a daily basis.
Benny was a few shades paler than Pete, Alex supposed that Benny didn't see as much sunlight as Pete did. Pete normally spent every waking hour out in the sun, in the summer, his whole body would be covered in freckles. Benny was skinnier than Pete as well, he had a slightly unhealthy look of someone who had been sick for a while, and was just beginning to get better. Though Benny didn't weigh as much as Pete, the young clone was fairly muscular for his age, he had lost a bit more of his baby fat than Pete had. And then of course there was the main difference between Pete and Benny, Benny was in a wheelchair.
"My God," Adam gasped monetary dropping his Irish accent. "Alex what happened to your hair?" Alex could not blame her cousin for being in shock.Adam's mouth formed an 'O' seeingthat Alex had cut off more than six inches of her hair and dyed it red.Alex had never been one who truly prided herself on her looks but she had always taken the best care of her long dark curly locks.
"Ashling, cut it Connor," Jeremiah answered stressing Alex's and Adam's alias. Remembering that they were undercover Adam composed himself and slid back into his Irish accent.
"Ya look lovely," Adam told Alex. "It suites ya."
"Thank ya Connor," Alex said.
"Ashling and Liam, you two remeber me da and me brother Benny?" Adam said indicating the two people next to him
"Of course," Jeremiah said shaking Benny out stretched hand. Alex glanced over at Jeremiah trying to gage his reaction to Benny. But like always Jeremiah's face was devoid of emotion. Jeremiah then nodded his head at Steveand Steve nodded back.
"Connor's spoken a great deal about the two of you," Steve said not bothering to disguise his accent. He wasn't a pretender and had avoided acting classes in high school. Steve knew that there was no way he could pull off a convincing Irish accent. No less a Scottish accent and he had lived on Carthis for over ten years.
"Were you followed?" Steve asked the newcomers, under his breath.
"No. They may know where we live but no one is watching the house, not even a team of FBI," Alex said softly as the group headed out to the car.
"Uncle Jarod said he didn't trust anyone to keep a watch on the house. Not after Cody betrayed us," Jeremiah continued.
"So we now have a state of the art security system," Alex concluded. They were doing nothing more than small talk, tiptoing around the subject of Kaine, Pete, and the dreams Alex and Benny had been sharing. Call them paranoid - they wouldn't deny it- but the group was not about to be careless and begin talking about such matters. There had never been a branch of the Centre in Ireland but they didn't mean that there weren't remnants of the Centre still out there.
They had already learned the hard way that Richard Parker still had a number of supporters. They also knew that the former chairman was cunning and resourceful, and the group wouldn't have put it past Parker to already set up a new Centre.
The quintet passed a bit more small talk until they reached the car, but as soon as Alex and Jeremiah's luggage had been placed in the trunk and Steve had exited the parking lot, the car was in an up roar.
"Holy shit, we're in over out heads aren't we?" Adam groaned. He was seated between Alex and Jeremiah, Benny and Steve were ridding up front.
"Alright what in the hell is with this dream Alex, and Ben have been sharing?" Steve asked.
"Screw the dream, I want to know about Kaine," Alex spoke up.
"He's dangerous what more do you need to know. What we need to focus on is the dream and finding Pete," Benny said. Benny, Adam, Steve, and Alex continued to talk over each other. Unable to stand the mass amount of noise Jeremiah brought his fingers to his lips and whistled loudly.
"Well that's one way to do it," Alex said smirking at her cousin.
"I suggest we go about this in a civilized manner," Jeremiah spoke ignoring Alex's comment.
"Well..." Alex began and it all started up again, and once again Jeremiah whistled to get everyone to stop yelling.
"Alright that's it, Jake's not here which means I'm the oldest, thus in charge" Jeremiah sighed reluctantly. Steve let out a cough. "I outrank you," Jeremiah said simply.
"How do you figure?" Steve grumbled.
"I've spent almost fifteen years involved with the Centre. Seen more than you. And I know more than you when it comes to the Centre," Jeremiah answered.
"Adam said that you're Sam Grey's son," Steve said.
"You know my Dad?" Jeremiah questioned.
"He was the one who trained me to be a sweeper. He's a good man. And your Mom's a good woman. She patched me up a few times after I managed to hobble to the infirmary from my training sessions with your Dad," Steve replied.
"I remember you, vaguely. We all watched Uncle Sam kick your ass one day when you were in training," Alex smirked.
"Do all of you swear like Centre sweepers?" Steve asked Alex.
"Hey from the way Uncle Sam tells it they've really cleaned up their language over the years," Adam said defending his cousins.
"So um... what's our first topic of discussion Jer?" Alex questioned.
"Whether we should leave Galway or not. Will knows where we are," Jeremiah stated.
"I don't see the problem with that," Adam spoke.
"He's not going to believe our cover story for too long. I told him that Pete was really Kaine, and he was about ready to ship me off to the funny farm," Alex sighed.
"If you ask me you should have been sent there eons ago," Adam quipped. Alex punched the boy in his arm.
"Just 'cause you've grown, still doesn't mean I can't take you little cousin," Alex told him.
"Wanna bet?" Adam asked, he held out his hand and Alex and Jeremiah watched in amazement as five electrical arches stretched from the tips of Adam's fingers to connect a few inches above his hand.
Adam looked up at his cousins grinning and Alex began to laugh.
"Adam...your...hair," Alex said between fits of laughter. Adam extinguished the electrical charges and quickly smoothed down his hair, which was sticking strait up in the air.
"I haven't figured out what to do with my hair yet," Adam said sheepishly. "It didn't stick up like that at first."
"We'll figure it out sweetie," Alex said pulling the boy into her arms, and kissing him on top of his head.
"It's cool huh?" Adam asked, all the while relishing to be in his cousins arms, he had missed the loving affections of his family.
"It's most defiantly cool Eddie," Alex agreed.
"Very cool," Jeremiah pipped up. "I can't wait to play with your new power." He smirked.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Alex asked Adam.
"I told Will, but I didn't want for Dad, Mom, Jake or Rach to know because they might try bring me home," Adam admitted.
"You seem to have pretty good control over it," Jeremiah said.
"Do you ever say more than one sentence at a time?" Steve asked Jeremiah.
"Rarely," Jeremiah replied. Adam bit his lip to keep from grinning. He was happy to once again be in company of his family, but a part of him wished that Jake and Rachael were there.
"Why, you don't need them," Jeremiah spoke, Adam briefly looked at his cousin in shock but then realized that Jeremiah had gone and borrowed Alex's empathic powers. Jeremiah had infact been using Alex's powers the moment they left Charlottesville. Jeremiah wanted to be able to know if he and Alex were being followed.
Meanwhile Benny and Steve were confused as to what Jeremiah was referring to.
"Stop reading my feelings Jer," Adam groaned.
"But you don't need Jake or Rach, Ad. Never did. You're a tough kid. You've proven that over the past month," Jeremiah said.
"Was that a personal best?" Steve muttered from the front.
"No once I had to give a report to the Triumvirate. I talked for a full five minutes," Jeremiah retorted.
"Jeremiah what did you mean when you said 'you don't need them'?" Benny asked.
"I was thinking about how I wished my brother and sister were here and at the time Jerry read my feelings using Alex's empathy," Adam answered for Jeremiah.
"I can see why you don't speak, everyone else does your talking for you," Steve spoke. "So I believe the topic at hand was if we should leave Galway." Steve said bringing back up the topic of discussion.
"Where would we go, if we left Galway?" Adam asked.
"Carthis," Spoke Alex, Jeremiah, and Benny simultaneously. Adam involuntarily shivered, at the low tone in Alex, Jeremiah, and Benny's voices.
"Well that was creepy," Adam muttered. "Why Carthis?"
"Cause that's were the voices say to go. Maybe we'll find Pete there, at the least we might find some answers as to where Pete is," Alex answered.
"We'll find him Katie, don't worry. We've got an ex-sweeper, an electrokinetic pretender, a clone with an inner sense an minimal pretender skills, and two of the most powerful Black Files. Hey Jer, how come you aren't as powerful as Will? I mean think about it in this way. Will's X-Man -or Franklin Richards which ever you prefer- and you're Rouge, only you know a guy not a girl. Rouge can absorb X-Man's powers and then she'd be the ultimate mutant. You borrow Will's powers and you're more powerful than Will."
Jeremiah briefly grinned he had missed Adam's comic book babble. "Rouge doesn't keep the mutants' powers she absorbs. And I can only borrow for so long before it wears me out," Jeremiah answered.
"But if Rouge held on to X-Man or Franklin long enough, she would have their powers forever," Adam pointed out.
"Here's the thing Eddie, I'm not Rouge," Jeremiah replied.
"I know that," Adam scowled, and Jeremiah ruffled the boy's hair.
"We're here," Steve announced as he pulled into the Inn. They all piled out of the car, Steve helping Benny into his wheelchair. They entered the Inn, Alex and Jeremiah -or should I say Ashling and Liam- booking a room next to Adam, Benny and Steve's.
"And who are these two, Connor?" Mave, the woman who ran the Inn questioned Adam.
"My cousins, Ashling and Liam O'Connell. There mother and father were killed a few weeks back, so they've come to live with, me, Da and Benny."
"Dear lord," Mave gasped. "I'm so sorry for yer loss children."
"Thank you ma'am," Alex and Jeremiah replied.
"I have more bad new Mave; We'll only be staying a few more days though, we're off to France," Adam answered.
"And what's in France, my dear boy?"
"Da's got himself a job, at the Lurve. It's far from home, but it's a well paying job, enough to support the five of us," Adam lied smoothly. Alex and Jeremiah were impressed.
"I will miss you my boy. Both your company and your cookin'," Mave told Adam.
"I'll miss you as well Mave, the past moth has been one of the best of me life," Adam replied honestly.
With that Adam and the rest of his group went to their rooms. Once their belongings were unpacked, Alex and Jeremiah went to Adam's room to further discuss their plans.
Up Next: Learn just what has happened to Peter since he's been taken and find out what the Centre has planed.
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