(disclaimer: I don't own the fine characters of Mutant X and receive
nothing but personal satisfaction from these fanfictions)
Adam walked up behind Jesse as he sat; focused on the computer screen in front of him. "How's it." Adam started to ask and then quickly apologized as Jesse practically jumped out of the reclining computer chair. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to sneak up on you. How's it coming?"
"We're starting to get bits and pieces," Jesse replied as his fingers continued dancing across the keyboard, as if independent from the person that they were attached to. "It's an extremely complex code, so far I've found five different codes for the word "the"!"
"Well, that actually makes sense. The easiest way to crack a code is to look for common words that are repeated and build out from there. By having several forms for each of those key words, it makes it that much harder for the computer to isolate them." Adam said, nodding his head in appreciation for the code's author, if not for that author's intent. "But its important that we crack it as quickly as possible. From the format, it looks like a serious plan and I'd like to know what we might be up against before we're staring it in the face." Adam gave Jesse a supportive pat on the shoulder and walked over to where Emma was sitting.
In front of her was a chess board and he noticed that she was not so much studying it as she was glaring at it. "Trying to develop telekinesis?" He asked lightheartedly. The glare that he received in response told him that this was not the time to point out that she was 2 moves from being checkmated. Instead, he sat on the couch and pretended to read, watching her discretely.
"I've got it!" announced Jesse victoriously. Looking over to confirm that he had everyone's attention, he continued. "They're after a new mutant named Dave, a molecular with super speed. Most of the message is about how to block off all of the exits so that he can't get away from the capture team. There's a reference to the pier and the train station, sounds like the old refinery." Looking at his watch he exclaimed, "damn, they're planning to meet him in less than 30 minutes."
As the team instinctively got up and headed down the stairs to the Double Helix, Adam voiced the thought on each of their minds, "They're probably already in place, so we won't be able to beat them to the punch, but there's still a chance of keeping "Dave" out of their hands. Let's go!"
After 25 minutes that seemed more like hours, the Vtol landed on the roof of the abandoned refinery and they found the door to the stairway unlocked. Brennan was just about to open the door when Shalimar caught his attention, shaking her head 'no'. She held up a single finger and mouthed 'five feet from the door'. Brennan nodded, knowing that he should have expected them to have the exit to the roof guarded.
As he pulled the energy that naturally flowed throughout his body and concentrated into his hands, he took a step back from the door. When he nodded, Shalimar opened the door and the man standing inside turned around just in time to be hit with an electrical blast that sent him flying down the flight of stairs to the landing 10 feet below, where he lay in an unconscious heap.
Shalimar looked up at him and put her finger to her lips with a teasing "Shhh!" To which Brennan replied with his best 'what-was-I-supposed-to- do?' shrug.
As the team worked their way down the stairs toward a large room with several rusted turbine engines, they heard a conversation between two men. "Right on time, Dave, I like that!" exclaimed one of the men. Adam signaled for Emma to join him sneaking down the stairs on one side of the room while he motioned for Brennan to head down the other side. He left Shalimar and Jesse on the catwalk, knowing that both preferred the 'drop- from-out-of-nowhere' dramatic entrance.
Dave responded with a suspicious, "Where's my sister?"
"She's safe, back at Genomex, we're going to take you to her now," replied the first man.
Panic washed over his face, "that's not what we agreed to, you said that you would bring her here, that I could make sure that she was safely out of here before I went with you!"
As an unusually tall Asian man stepped up behind Dave with a sub-dermal governor implant gun, the other man continued in a calm, soothing voice, "Sorry, sometimes plans change. Now just relax and we'll make sure that you get a chance to see your sister before we drop her back at college, safe and sound."
Brennan jumped down the last few steps while commenting, "Now there's a blatant lie if I ever heard one."
"Beat it, electro-freak!" the man spat, turning to face the intruder. As he turned away from Dave, the young man grabbed the chance to make a run for it, easily dodging around the Asian man before anyone could move to stop him. Suddenly, a woman stepped out from behind one of the turbines and, as a strange light played across her eyes, Dave appeared to run into an invisible wall, falling back to the floor.
"Nice work, Daari!" the first man hollered over to the woman. She nodded as she leaned back against the turbine. Emma stepped out into the open and five other agents on the capture team appeared from their hiding places to face them. As one of the agents activated a stun stick, Shalimar tackled him from above and Jesse landed in his massed form, much to the surprise of the man who threw a roundhouse kick into his ribs.
As the man stumbled back, gingerly putting weight on the injured leg, Shalimar shot out a quick, "that's gotta hurt!" and smiled at Jesse while ducking a punch aimed at her face. She went to move to the left, out of the way of a kick, but her feet felt nailed to the floor and the kick landed, knocking the wind out of her.
As Brennan went to block an attack with a stun stick, he felt his arm strike something solid, before he was able to get to the attacker. While he was trying to figure out what he had hit, he felt the searing pain from the weapon. He only managed to stay conscious by focusing all of his energy on absorbing the shock, "okay, now I'm pissed!" he said with a grimace.
Standing near the stairs, Adam watched in disbelief as his highly trained team appeared to be making stupid, careless mistakes and misjudgments. Knowing that this wasn't normal, he glanced around the room, looking for the cause. As he spotted Daari, standing next to one of the engines, he saw her eyes flash an electrical green and then saw Jesse trip over his own feet. In a split second, he reviewed all of the possible options and then announced his conclusion to himself, "a telekinetic!"
Adam realized that his team was losing what should be an easy fight. He just needed to distract Daari long enough for them to get the upper hand on the other agents. "Daari!" he shouted, stepping toward her. "Let's talk about this, there's no need for this fighting. What do you want with Dave anyway?" As Daari obviously tried to remain focused on her task, Adam stepped closer and continued, "Why are you working for the GSA? Do you like being controlled by a sub-dermal governor? Living in fear that you'll make a mistake and end up in a stasis pod?" He could see her face starting to turn red as she clenched her jaw.
Finally she spun to face him as her body shook with the rage building up inside her, "Maybe all of the freaks like us should be locked up in little cages like the lab rats that we are! Or don't you give a shit about the survival of your damn species?" Adam swallowed hard and forced himself to remain calm and composed as she continued without waiting for an answer. "Do you think that mere 'humans' are ever going to accept someone who can do this?" She screamed as she mentally picked up a large chunk of concrete pipe and threw it toward him.
Adam remained silent, his mind analyzing the flood of information: this was a very dangerous woman, her anger could be used against her, but her reactions would be unpredictable because she wasn't thinking rationally; she'd demonstrated precision in her earlier attacks, so why did the pipe miss him by 5 feet? As Daari turned back toward the fighting Adam re- engaged her with a question, "Daari, why do you think that new mutants are a threat to the human race?" and then immediately had to force himself not to cringe at the raw furry that he saw in her eyes.
"You idiot!" she shouted, "look at what the cats in Hawaii did to the native bird population! Look at the rabbits that have taken over regions of Australia! Look at all of the other times that an alien species has been introduced to a closed environment! New mutants are stronger and faster than the 'native species' and you'll be lucky if your species avoids extinction. The damn statistics are already coming in, Adam, new mutants have a higher average fertility rate than mere humans and, so far, every child with a new mutant parent and a human parent has inherited full, if not increased, new mutant abilities! You can't deny the effect that a new predator like that will have on native populations!"
Adam listened intently, preparing all of the counter argument that he would save until she was in the frame of mind to listen. He noticed with some relief that the distraction was successful and his team was finishing off the final few agents and quietly surrounding the woman as she raged on. "The GSA is the only hope that humans have! Its only a matter of time before new mutants start banding together, only a fool would believe that superior beings would continue to hide in the shadows, pretending that we're 'normal'!"
Suddenly, Daari realized what Adam had done, that she had played right into his hands. She saw Emma leading Dave up the stairs toward the roof and the team that she was supposed to be protect laying scattered on the floor. She heard the voice in her head, "thou shalt not kill" but it was drowned out by her anger. She focused that anger on a large transformer attached to the wall and, ripping it from the wall, threw it directly at the man that she blamed for everything. As Adam stepped back, Jesse stepped between the transformer and its intended target and massed up, blocking the attack.
As Brennan and Shalimar watched to see that Adam was okay, Daari slipped back behind the giant turbine engine. "You're the ones who will be responsible for the destruction caused when the freaks you've let loose into your 'underground' wage war with the humans!" she continued yelling from behind her shield. Adam sighed and shook his head, he had hoped that she would expend her rage and calm down, but the rage seemed to be feeding on itself and growing.
As Shalimar and Brennan joined Adam and Jesse, Adam shook his head saying, "We need to bring that loose cannon under control before she starts the very war that she's warning against!"
They noticed that Daari peeked out from behind the engine a couple times and Shalimar focused in on where she was looking. "She's going to make a break for the side door," Shalimar informed Adam and Brennan.
"And I'll be ready when she does," finished Brennan as he started to build the crackling ball of energy between his hands. From her hideout, Daari could hear the crackling of the electricity and realized that he would strike as soon as she made her move. Forcing herself to think strategically, she reasoned that Brennan would throw the bolt at her upper chest, so she decided to use a sprinter's low start which would put her below the strike. Then she would just try to get out of his line of fire before he powered up for a second strike.
As Daari started to move, Brennan threw the energy at her hip level where it would knock her unconscious without doing any serious damage. She saw it heading straight for her and tried to stop and get back behind the turbine when the bolt of electricity grazed right across her face. Letting out a scream of agony, she fell back against the engine, clawing at her eyes in a desperate attempt to stop the searing pain.
Adam ran over to the woman as she sat, curled in a ball, crying out in anguish and pulled her hands away from her eyes to prevent her from causing further injury. Jesse arrived on the other side of her and held her hands away from her face sides while Adam forced one eye and then the other open. "I can't tell anything through the tearing," he announced.
"Daari, I know it hurts, but I want you to try to calm down. We're going to help you, we're not going to hurt you, it was an accident." Adam tried to use as calming of tone as possible while speaking loud enough to be heard over the screams of panic and agony, but it was obvious that his words were having no effect. A look of sad resolve crossed his face as he placed the heal of his hand at the base of her throat and used his fingers to cut off the blood supply to her brain without cutting off her air. Slowly the screams quieted as her body became limp.
Looking up, Adam noticed Shalimar standing with a supportive hand on Brennan's arm. As he noticed the pale look of despair on the elemental's face, he realized that Brennan needed to be doing something to help, "Brennan, I need you to get her up to the Double Helix before she comes too." Relieved to have something to do, he scooped the woman into his arms and used the anxiety flowing through him to practically run up the stairs.
Once in the aircraft, Brennan pressed a button on the wall with his foot, causing a table to slide out and he laid the woman down gently. Adam ran in and grabbed a syringe from a cabinet and pressed it against Daari's arm, just as the woman started to stir. "Okay," Adam said as he finally started to feel like things were under control, "Jesse, get us over to Safehouse 7, I want Emma and Shalimar to get Dave settled in," Adam forced himself to take the time to make eye contact with the young man and give him a reassuring smile, "then we'll take Daari to Sanctuary and I'll have someone come pick you girls up in a couple hours, okay?" Nodding, everyone took their seats.
Adam walked up behind Jesse as he sat; focused on the computer screen in front of him. "How's it." Adam started to ask and then quickly apologized as Jesse practically jumped out of the reclining computer chair. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to sneak up on you. How's it coming?"
"We're starting to get bits and pieces," Jesse replied as his fingers continued dancing across the keyboard, as if independent from the person that they were attached to. "It's an extremely complex code, so far I've found five different codes for the word "the"!"
"Well, that actually makes sense. The easiest way to crack a code is to look for common words that are repeated and build out from there. By having several forms for each of those key words, it makes it that much harder for the computer to isolate them." Adam said, nodding his head in appreciation for the code's author, if not for that author's intent. "But its important that we crack it as quickly as possible. From the format, it looks like a serious plan and I'd like to know what we might be up against before we're staring it in the face." Adam gave Jesse a supportive pat on the shoulder and walked over to where Emma was sitting.
In front of her was a chess board and he noticed that she was not so much studying it as she was glaring at it. "Trying to develop telekinesis?" He asked lightheartedly. The glare that he received in response told him that this was not the time to point out that she was 2 moves from being checkmated. Instead, he sat on the couch and pretended to read, watching her discretely.
"I've got it!" announced Jesse victoriously. Looking over to confirm that he had everyone's attention, he continued. "They're after a new mutant named Dave, a molecular with super speed. Most of the message is about how to block off all of the exits so that he can't get away from the capture team. There's a reference to the pier and the train station, sounds like the old refinery." Looking at his watch he exclaimed, "damn, they're planning to meet him in less than 30 minutes."
As the team instinctively got up and headed down the stairs to the Double Helix, Adam voiced the thought on each of their minds, "They're probably already in place, so we won't be able to beat them to the punch, but there's still a chance of keeping "Dave" out of their hands. Let's go!"
After 25 minutes that seemed more like hours, the Vtol landed on the roof of the abandoned refinery and they found the door to the stairway unlocked. Brennan was just about to open the door when Shalimar caught his attention, shaking her head 'no'. She held up a single finger and mouthed 'five feet from the door'. Brennan nodded, knowing that he should have expected them to have the exit to the roof guarded.
As he pulled the energy that naturally flowed throughout his body and concentrated into his hands, he took a step back from the door. When he nodded, Shalimar opened the door and the man standing inside turned around just in time to be hit with an electrical blast that sent him flying down the flight of stairs to the landing 10 feet below, where he lay in an unconscious heap.
Shalimar looked up at him and put her finger to her lips with a teasing "Shhh!" To which Brennan replied with his best 'what-was-I-supposed-to- do?' shrug.
As the team worked their way down the stairs toward a large room with several rusted turbine engines, they heard a conversation between two men. "Right on time, Dave, I like that!" exclaimed one of the men. Adam signaled for Emma to join him sneaking down the stairs on one side of the room while he motioned for Brennan to head down the other side. He left Shalimar and Jesse on the catwalk, knowing that both preferred the 'drop- from-out-of-nowhere' dramatic entrance.
Dave responded with a suspicious, "Where's my sister?"
"She's safe, back at Genomex, we're going to take you to her now," replied the first man.
Panic washed over his face, "that's not what we agreed to, you said that you would bring her here, that I could make sure that she was safely out of here before I went with you!"
As an unusually tall Asian man stepped up behind Dave with a sub-dermal governor implant gun, the other man continued in a calm, soothing voice, "Sorry, sometimes plans change. Now just relax and we'll make sure that you get a chance to see your sister before we drop her back at college, safe and sound."
Brennan jumped down the last few steps while commenting, "Now there's a blatant lie if I ever heard one."
"Beat it, electro-freak!" the man spat, turning to face the intruder. As he turned away from Dave, the young man grabbed the chance to make a run for it, easily dodging around the Asian man before anyone could move to stop him. Suddenly, a woman stepped out from behind one of the turbines and, as a strange light played across her eyes, Dave appeared to run into an invisible wall, falling back to the floor.
"Nice work, Daari!" the first man hollered over to the woman. She nodded as she leaned back against the turbine. Emma stepped out into the open and five other agents on the capture team appeared from their hiding places to face them. As one of the agents activated a stun stick, Shalimar tackled him from above and Jesse landed in his massed form, much to the surprise of the man who threw a roundhouse kick into his ribs.
As the man stumbled back, gingerly putting weight on the injured leg, Shalimar shot out a quick, "that's gotta hurt!" and smiled at Jesse while ducking a punch aimed at her face. She went to move to the left, out of the way of a kick, but her feet felt nailed to the floor and the kick landed, knocking the wind out of her.
As Brennan went to block an attack with a stun stick, he felt his arm strike something solid, before he was able to get to the attacker. While he was trying to figure out what he had hit, he felt the searing pain from the weapon. He only managed to stay conscious by focusing all of his energy on absorbing the shock, "okay, now I'm pissed!" he said with a grimace.
Standing near the stairs, Adam watched in disbelief as his highly trained team appeared to be making stupid, careless mistakes and misjudgments. Knowing that this wasn't normal, he glanced around the room, looking for the cause. As he spotted Daari, standing next to one of the engines, he saw her eyes flash an electrical green and then saw Jesse trip over his own feet. In a split second, he reviewed all of the possible options and then announced his conclusion to himself, "a telekinetic!"
Adam realized that his team was losing what should be an easy fight. He just needed to distract Daari long enough for them to get the upper hand on the other agents. "Daari!" he shouted, stepping toward her. "Let's talk about this, there's no need for this fighting. What do you want with Dave anyway?" As Daari obviously tried to remain focused on her task, Adam stepped closer and continued, "Why are you working for the GSA? Do you like being controlled by a sub-dermal governor? Living in fear that you'll make a mistake and end up in a stasis pod?" He could see her face starting to turn red as she clenched her jaw.
Finally she spun to face him as her body shook with the rage building up inside her, "Maybe all of the freaks like us should be locked up in little cages like the lab rats that we are! Or don't you give a shit about the survival of your damn species?" Adam swallowed hard and forced himself to remain calm and composed as she continued without waiting for an answer. "Do you think that mere 'humans' are ever going to accept someone who can do this?" She screamed as she mentally picked up a large chunk of concrete pipe and threw it toward him.
Adam remained silent, his mind analyzing the flood of information: this was a very dangerous woman, her anger could be used against her, but her reactions would be unpredictable because she wasn't thinking rationally; she'd demonstrated precision in her earlier attacks, so why did the pipe miss him by 5 feet? As Daari turned back toward the fighting Adam re- engaged her with a question, "Daari, why do you think that new mutants are a threat to the human race?" and then immediately had to force himself not to cringe at the raw furry that he saw in her eyes.
"You idiot!" she shouted, "look at what the cats in Hawaii did to the native bird population! Look at the rabbits that have taken over regions of Australia! Look at all of the other times that an alien species has been introduced to a closed environment! New mutants are stronger and faster than the 'native species' and you'll be lucky if your species avoids extinction. The damn statistics are already coming in, Adam, new mutants have a higher average fertility rate than mere humans and, so far, every child with a new mutant parent and a human parent has inherited full, if not increased, new mutant abilities! You can't deny the effect that a new predator like that will have on native populations!"
Adam listened intently, preparing all of the counter argument that he would save until she was in the frame of mind to listen. He noticed with some relief that the distraction was successful and his team was finishing off the final few agents and quietly surrounding the woman as she raged on. "The GSA is the only hope that humans have! Its only a matter of time before new mutants start banding together, only a fool would believe that superior beings would continue to hide in the shadows, pretending that we're 'normal'!"
Suddenly, Daari realized what Adam had done, that she had played right into his hands. She saw Emma leading Dave up the stairs toward the roof and the team that she was supposed to be protect laying scattered on the floor. She heard the voice in her head, "thou shalt not kill" but it was drowned out by her anger. She focused that anger on a large transformer attached to the wall and, ripping it from the wall, threw it directly at the man that she blamed for everything. As Adam stepped back, Jesse stepped between the transformer and its intended target and massed up, blocking the attack.
As Brennan and Shalimar watched to see that Adam was okay, Daari slipped back behind the giant turbine engine. "You're the ones who will be responsible for the destruction caused when the freaks you've let loose into your 'underground' wage war with the humans!" she continued yelling from behind her shield. Adam sighed and shook his head, he had hoped that she would expend her rage and calm down, but the rage seemed to be feeding on itself and growing.
As Shalimar and Brennan joined Adam and Jesse, Adam shook his head saying, "We need to bring that loose cannon under control before she starts the very war that she's warning against!"
They noticed that Daari peeked out from behind the engine a couple times and Shalimar focused in on where she was looking. "She's going to make a break for the side door," Shalimar informed Adam and Brennan.
"And I'll be ready when she does," finished Brennan as he started to build the crackling ball of energy between his hands. From her hideout, Daari could hear the crackling of the electricity and realized that he would strike as soon as she made her move. Forcing herself to think strategically, she reasoned that Brennan would throw the bolt at her upper chest, so she decided to use a sprinter's low start which would put her below the strike. Then she would just try to get out of his line of fire before he powered up for a second strike.
As Daari started to move, Brennan threw the energy at her hip level where it would knock her unconscious without doing any serious damage. She saw it heading straight for her and tried to stop and get back behind the turbine when the bolt of electricity grazed right across her face. Letting out a scream of agony, she fell back against the engine, clawing at her eyes in a desperate attempt to stop the searing pain.
Adam ran over to the woman as she sat, curled in a ball, crying out in anguish and pulled her hands away from her eyes to prevent her from causing further injury. Jesse arrived on the other side of her and held her hands away from her face sides while Adam forced one eye and then the other open. "I can't tell anything through the tearing," he announced.
"Daari, I know it hurts, but I want you to try to calm down. We're going to help you, we're not going to hurt you, it was an accident." Adam tried to use as calming of tone as possible while speaking loud enough to be heard over the screams of panic and agony, but it was obvious that his words were having no effect. A look of sad resolve crossed his face as he placed the heal of his hand at the base of her throat and used his fingers to cut off the blood supply to her brain without cutting off her air. Slowly the screams quieted as her body became limp.
Looking up, Adam noticed Shalimar standing with a supportive hand on Brennan's arm. As he noticed the pale look of despair on the elemental's face, he realized that Brennan needed to be doing something to help, "Brennan, I need you to get her up to the Double Helix before she comes too." Relieved to have something to do, he scooped the woman into his arms and used the anxiety flowing through him to practically run up the stairs.
Once in the aircraft, Brennan pressed a button on the wall with his foot, causing a table to slide out and he laid the woman down gently. Adam ran in and grabbed a syringe from a cabinet and pressed it against Daari's arm, just as the woman started to stir. "Okay," Adam said as he finally started to feel like things were under control, "Jesse, get us over to Safehouse 7, I want Emma and Shalimar to get Dave settled in," Adam forced himself to take the time to make eye contact with the young man and give him a reassuring smile, "then we'll take Daari to Sanctuary and I'll have someone come pick you girls up in a couple hours, okay?" Nodding, everyone took their seats.