Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for those I invent.
D.C. is a character I invented. For details, see "D.C. and the CN Tower." chapters one through five.
DC had gone to every site the OMA had in New York, and every member had been evacuated to Oklahoma City. The only mutant DC knew of that was still in New York was that strange guy with blue skin, yellow eyes, and a tail. He had a German (Or was it an Austrian?) accent, and he had the ability to appear and disappear in a giant blue cloud that smelled of brimstone for some odd reason. DC had told him to stay in the lounge and watch TV until he came back.
"Ja, ja, ja, I will stay unless the police come. You had better come back soon."
"Right. See ya later."
And he had gone to Washington. The members there were hiding in abandoned Metro tunnels. There were no unused subway stations, so the people there just walking around, and hardly any meetings were ever held because it was hard to get some many people together without a permanent headquarters. This however was an emergency, and a special effort had been taken to get every single member into a temporary headquarters. It was slightly easier to evacuate Washington then it was New York because every member was in just one location.
Washington taken care of, DC moved on to Salt Lake.
Salt Lake City didn't have a subway system. Members had to go down into the stinky sewers into an old maintenance room. When DC came out, he wrinkled his nose. Then he converted all the air into energy that he sent into the local power grid. This created a complete vacuum, which had never before been achieved on Earth. It only lasted for a split second however. All anybody noticed was the whole room suddenly turn bright blue, then the light faded and a great whoosh was heard as air rushed in through a ventilation duct installed to control the smell but before now had never been effective. Then Salt Lake City was made OMA-free and DC proceeded to Los Angeles.
Like New York and Washington DC, Los Angeles had a subway system. But this subway system was like Washington's. No forgotten subway stations, so members just wandered the tunnels. But they had followed a similar plan as the members in Washington, except for the fact that there were several meeting places.
The United States was almost free of the OMA without ever knowing it had played host to it. Oklahoma City's population had increased by several thousand, and it didn't know it. All everyone had to do was wait for DC to come back to transport them to Canada and freedom. But DC had one more thing to do.
"Tell them not to worry. I have a little errand to run." said DC to a little girl before she disappeared. DC smiled. For delivering such a message from one blue to another would mean an instant upgrade for the girl.
DC went into the phone lines and searched the Internet. Hmm. Casrey, Casrey, Casrey, ah, here we are! Now, for Benjamin and Martha… here we go…Pine Valley, Utah…
Pine Valley is a little community in southwest Utah. It's a very small town, lucky even to have a name. It becomes deserted every winter because it is way up high in the mountains and gets a lot of snow. And this small, insignificant and peaceful town was where a being made up of 500 trillion volts of energy was headed to see his family.
Here we are. This is the right address. DC looked at the small cabin. He heaved a big sigh. Then he pushed open the gate and walked up the path leading to the front door. He passed a small lawn and a large garden. DC smiled, remembering how his mother loved gardening. Then he was standing by the door. Then stopped, thought about it, then with resolved determination, he pushed the doorbell.
"Yes? What is the purpose of your visit?"
DC just stared at his mom. The years have aged her a bit, and her blonde hair was graying. She looked with distaste at his shoulder length blue hair. He remembered how she disliked people who dyed their hair, pierced their bodies and the like.
"Mom, you don't recognize me, do you?"
But she seemed to recognize his voice. She clutched the door tightly, fear clouding her eyes.
"You've come back. Your father and I told you not to come back, ever, and you did. Why?"
"To say goodbye."
Surprise sprung on her face.
"To say goodbye? Why?"
"I'm leaving the country. I might never be able to come back, so this was my last chance to finally see you again."
She opened her mouth to say something, then something struck her mind. She seemed to be thinking about something. Suddenly his mother smiled. Relief was in her eyes.
"Suddenly I'm very glad you came back. Now you can take Dean."
"What? Take Dean? Why?"
"Because he's one of you. He's been driving me crazy because of his…his…abnormality."
She said the last word with contempt and distaste.
"I want you to take him. Birds of a feather should flock together. I'll go tell him to get packed."
With that she slammed the door in his face. He heard her yelling at someone, someone yelling back, his mom yelled again, and suddenly he heard running feet and the door burst opening, and a blur latched itself on DC's middle.
A few minutes later, DC and his little(?) brother Sean were walking down the road towards the nearest power line.
Dean had grown up. He was almost as tall as DC, and he was 6' 3", so he thought Dean had done a good job of growing. Dean had a muscular build, dark, tanned skin, and an easy smile. But the greatest shock for DC was the fact that Dean had purple hair with matching eyes. But unlike DC, Dean had it cut short, like the average boy.
He was staring at DC, and blabbering away.
"IcantbelieveyourehereIvewantedtoseeyouforsolongMomandDadhavebeenhorriblegeezyouvechangedwherehaveyoubeenhaveyoumetanycutechickshowarewegoingtogetoutofthecountry?"
"Calm down and take a breath little one. It has been a long time hasn't it?"
Dean took several deep breaths then started talking normally.
"The last time I saw you, you were twelve and I was nine. I hadn't discovered my powers yet, and I had no idea what mutants were. Things sure have changed, haven't they? You'll be twenty-one, right?"
"Yeah. That would make you eighteen?"
"Uh-huh. So where have you been all this time? Why haven't you been writing me?"
"After that talk I had with mom and dad before I left, I knew any mail coming from me would've been ripped up and burned."
"I guess so."
"So, what's your power?"
"I can control graviton particles. I could make you as heavy as an elephant or I could reverse your gravitational polarity and send you flying up into space."
"I doubt you could. My power is being able to control all forms of energy, including gravity. I can fly because of that. Can you?"
"Can I?"
And just to prove it, Dean started hovering a couple of inches above the ground.
"Stop that before somebody sees. We're fugitives, remember that. Didn't anybody tell you about the MRA being passed?"
"I know, I know. By the way, how are we going to get my stuff out of the country? Do you have a car?"
All this time both of them had been carrying two suitcases each. All were full of clothes and treasured possessions.
"You see that power line?"
"Yeah."
"Every wonder what the inside looks like?"
"You mean-"
"We're going to stop in Oklahoma City to pick up some friends of mine. We'll be going to Canada, ok?"
"Wait!"
A few seconds later, they popped into an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of Oklahoma City. It was full of people at the moment, who were whispering to each other because they had all been warned to be quiet. The warehouse was supposed to be condemned and dangerous, and any passerby would certainly call the police if he or she heard voices inside. Dean looked around.
"You have a lot of friends."
"Dean, I'd like to welcome you to the temporary headquarters of the Outcast Mutant Alliance. Here's your headband."
And a headband with all black beads and a black line in the middle appeared out of nowhere in DC's hand. Dean's eyes widened in shock.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, my powers include being able to change energy into matter and vice versa."
Dean nodded, took the headband and put it on his head. DC reached over and adjusted it so that the black line rested on Dean's forehead.
"Since you're new, you have to be in the lowest class, the Black Beginners. If you are a good member and do everything a blue tells you to do, you can upgrade to the next level. Your next level is gray, then white, then yellow, then red, green, and finally the highest class, Blue Ultimate. It's very difficult to get to green, but if you do then you're guaranteed to be a blue."
"What are you?"
DC took out his headband. When Dean saw the blue diamond in the shape of a star he whistled softly.
"I'm a blue. I'm also a very respected member of the OMA. I'm known as Aquarius. Each member makes up a name for him or herself. I need to take you to the check-in to get yours."
So they waded through the crowd of people. Eventually they got to the check-in, and a green boy DC didn't know looked up from the computer.
"This is a new member. He needs a name."
"OK. Real name?"
"Dean Casrey."
"OMA name?"
Dean thought hard.
"How about…Rama?"
"That name has not been taken. Welcome to the OMA, Rama. May you proceed to Blue Ultimate."
The green saluted Dean, and so did everyone within earshot. Then the green sat down, and accessed something on the computer. DC turned to Dean.
"You go and make some friends. It's not encouraged, but you'll only be able to speak to blacks for a little while. Everyone above black considers themselves too important to speak to a new black, but once everyone gets to know you everybody can speak and be spoken to. I've got to go meet the other blues. See you later little brother. Where's the lounge?"
The green pointed to DC's right.
"Through that door, down the hall, and to the left."
"Thank you."
DC turned and walked through the doors. He looked through the small window in it and smiled when the crowd engulfed Dean. DC had purposefully said "little brother" because everyone wanted to associate with a blue's relative. But it was unknown to all of them, including the greens, that when the blues considered a person for an upgrade, anyone that was friends or were related to that person was banned from the council. DC would not be able to help Dean advance.
The green's directions were accurate to a T. DC walked into the lounge, and it was very, very crowded.
"Hey! It's Aquarius!" somebody yelled. Everyone turned and saluted. Then the murmur of conversation rose again.
DC wormed his way over to Intelligence, who was waiting in line for a drink.
"Where've you been?"
"I wanted to say goodbye to my family 'cause it would be my last chance, but somehow I managed to pick up my little brother Dean."
"That's cool, man. Did you enter him into the OMA?"
"Oh course I did."
"How long has it been since you last saw him?"
"About nine years."
"Whoa. Talk about long time, no see."
"Yeah. Anyway, did you find out about the other prison complexes?"
"Indeed. I just got calls from all my connections. They all said the same thing. There are not three other complexes, there's only one more other then the one you got stuck in."
"Well, that'll make thing easier."
"Not really. Every since you guys escaped, the military's been upgrading it. Fixing it up, you know what I'm saying? The complex is more then ten times more secure then Fort Knox."
"Really? Where is it?"
"It's on Kahoolawe Island."
"What? I thought the military used it for target practice!"
"Not anymore. The whole island is covered with the prison. The military's had a rough time keeping it from the public. You know about the Virgo, don't you?"
"That cruise ship that went down off the northern coast of Maui? Sure."
"It didn't go down off northern Maui, it went down off southern Kahoolawe. It went too close to the island and a military submarine was ordered to torpedo it. The military forced the cruise company that owned Virgo to say it was near Maui, and that an illegal substance onboard caused the explosion."
"And the company got sued and went bankrupt because of it."
"Yep."
"Have you told anyone else about this?"
"Nope, I figured you should be the first one to know about it."
"Has a meeting been called?"
"No, we thought that as soon as you got here, you could take us all to Canada and then have a meeting."
"I guess that's safer."
"We gonna tell everybody about the prison?"
"Yes. I'd better go up and start moving people right-"
Suddenly the lights went out, the conversation stopped cold, and a bullhorn outside was heard.
"All right mutants! This is the police! We know that you're in there! Come out with your hands up!"
DC tried the electrical system. Dead. Then the phones. Dead. They were all dead.
"Um. Problem."
"What is it?"
"I can't get us out!"