NOTE: Sorry it took a bit. Been very busy. Still not much inspiration for TFO >_< DIE STUPID WRITER's BLOCK! Anyway,
I'm performing in the school musical tommorrow, so I technically should be asleep, but I decided to finish it just for you! Wish me luck! ^_^
This chapter is kinda grusome, but I like it. Hope you enjoy it. I finnally figured out the progression of events and if I can ever find time to
write, I should be able to get there.
IMPORTANT: I've changed the ending of chapter 3 because I was dissatisfied. Either go back and read it or just keep
in mind that I have made it so that Sabine was fighting witht the others and NOT keeping watch. If you do not read this and this chapter does not make sense, it's
your problem. Anyhoo, enjoy! -CG
It took Amit only minutes to realize that the hunters were not open firing. If they were, not a mutant soul would be alive. The shots must be in warning, but what sort of warning? Why not kill them now and get the bloody job over with? Concentrating hard, Amit stole the electricity from the visor sunglasses that the hunters wore and spread the charge throughout the bridge, shocking the first line of troops. No luck. The second line fired several more shots in warning. What were they waiting for?
"You will stand," a menacing voice spoke in English, instead of Prowl-Gab.
*Do as they say,* Tyler transmitted the message to both teams, *We'll see just what their game is.*
"Line up," the voice commanded once more. A memory rang back in Hannah's head. Ever since she began to read chapter books, she had become obsessed with Holocaust literature. Perhaps it was because that time period, in an awful, yet ironic matter, did not seem so different from the current time. She heard many stories of this kind of matter and had no doubt of their intent.
Tyler picked up on her thoughts and did his best to stay calm. He was the leader. Leaders stay in control. But those five simple words that radiated out of Hannah's thoughts were so true and inevitable that it was so hard not to break down. They're going to shoot us! Her tiny voice rang into the communicators, a warning sign that they all must heed, but was it too late?
"What can we do?" Alyce asked them all, but not weakly. She knew very well that all their powers combined could not the defeat the forces that outnumbered them. To even attempt was suicide.
Their fate was clear now. The hunters would line them up and shoot them, only to steal their valuables and possessions. Lining them all up would stop them from running, and make them believe that they would be saved. The hunters believed, although not unreasonably, that the X-Teams were naïve children who could trust. What they seemed to forget is that the innocent children had lost all they could trust, save their teammates, and were not easily fooled.
Silence rang over the com links. Breaking the silence, Sabine answered Alyce's question. "Rien. Nothing. There is nothing we can do."
She hated feeling as if she was trapped in a precipice. Deep, dark tension mounted within her, building up along with the throbbing of her scar. She wanted to do something, wished she could do something.
The hunters pushed them into a line.
"Fear not, children, all will be fine. We're just going to count you and take a record. I assure you that none of you will be hurt."
"Like the devil," whispered Hannah.
***
"Sir," Viktor of Neo-Excalibur stood before the computer professor who once was the kindly crippled mentor, "Haven't the Neo-X-Men been out much longer than predicted?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so." The professor's voice had as much emotion as a computer voice.
"Vatever made you send out Extreme to the bridge?"
"They need to start somewhere, Viktor, they need to start somewhere."
"But Vhy? Vat vas there that vas so special that you had to send a team out?"
"I needed a hound. They've added something more to the genetic mutations and I need a new one to examine so we know what we're up against. It's for the good of all of us! Surely you didn't think..."
"Oh! But of course, professor....I vas just thinking that perhaps Neo-Excalibur should go out and make sure everything is alright..."
"I don't think that will be necessary."
"But professor! Knowing Sabine...and Tyler...they vould be back by now...I think it vould be best to make sure...."
A mechanical sigh rang from the speakers which the professor's voice was hooked to. "Very well, Viktor. Send Neo-Excalibur out. Take the helicopter out! And good luck!"
Viktor did not reply but rushed out of the office, glad to be away from the mechanical mastermind that led them. He knew that once this...machine...had been a mentor to his father, but now, there was just something in him that made him seem less like a man. It wasn't the computer appearance...it was something in the way he talked, and the things he said, but truthfully he wasn't quite sure what exactly was wrong. Perhaps it was just a figment of his imagination. The Neo-X-Men and Extreme were what was important at the moment.
In his hurry out of the office he failed to hear the call of Tyler's voice over the intercom in the Professor's office.
"Sir, this is Telepath of Neo-X-Men callin' Professor X. We are in trouble. Big trouble. Outnumbered one of us to every ten hunters! GW Bridge guarded more then we ever imagined. But please, for the sake of the cause, don't send out any teams after us! I repeat, don't send out any teams!"
"Sabine! Tyler! What's has happened?"
Sabine spoke up, "I don' think the team can get out of this one...but...but...Ah guess Ah always knew Ah wouldn't see the cause the entire way through. Ah just feel bad for Mike...an' Extreme. So young! Not ready to die for a cause! Don' send any more out! Dey're gonna shoot us! Spare the others! Dey'll be outnumbered! Dey'll die for sure! We need the others to fight for the cause! Mah signal will break up soon....professor....if Viktor tries to go out...oh Ah know he will...don' let him, please! Don' let him! We need Neo-Excalibur to lead! Please professor! Pass de message on...Professor...." All of her other frantic pleas were lost in a wave of static like the roar of an ocean. The professor simply shut off his com link.
***
She cried silently as she heard the click of the com link. She couldn't be sure if the professor would even listen to either her or Tyler. It was lost. Everything she had ever worked for, dreamed for...lost in the single of an explosion of a gun. Sure, she had always known that she would die fighting for the cause, but she never dreamed that it would be quite like this. Not in a blast of light and thunder. Not lined up with her peers so that they all could see the terror in her eyes. She wanted to die...alone...where no one could see her fear. Where she could have the moment of silence she prayed for. Also, she didn't want to die now. Not here. Not now. Funny, really, now that she knew for sure she had no one in the world was when she didn't want to die.
She wished she could try to fight, but it was useless. Without anything of helpfulness to pull, her powers did nothing. Nothing. She felt as if she had done nothing, and could do nothing. She was a failure to the cause. Her power was useless.
"Get into line!" This time jabbing guns into their backs, the hunters herded them like cattle.
None of the X-Children even tried to use their powers. There was no use. With the one to ten ratio, it was worthless. No point. None at all.
Sabine's scar was more than throbbing now. It felt as if it was swelling. But now the feeling, the painful pulsing and pounded had spread throughout her body as if she was trying to pull something to her that just wouldn't budge, and it banged against her with each mighty tug, bruising her body. It quickened along with her heart rate when she stood in line with her fellow teammates, for the last time. Faster and faster until all she wanted to do was blend in with her pain. She wanted to let go and swim in a sea of torture, loosing all her wits. That was just what she did. Her glowing scar shimmered brighter.
***
"¡Dios Mio!" cried Silvia as she saw the sight from above in the helicopter, "They're surrounded!"
"Viktor! We should turn back! Going in there would be suicide!" Persyltha advised, noting the dismal appearance of the situation.
"It's our duty to help varriors of the cause," Viktor was firm in his speech, "I'm gonna fly in a little lower."
"It's suicide Viks," Fugio said uncharacteristically grave, "We can't."
"But we must."
Back on the ground, the brutal slaughter was delayed by the noisy blades of the chopper beating like the banging of drums in a blustery wind of bristling wings. "It's the helicopter," whispered Alyce, "I thought you told them not to come..."
"I did," Tyler whispered.
***
As Sabine let go, the pulling sensation became stronger, but she no longer fought it. She was going to die anyway. As the pulling grew stronger, so the did glowing, and it spread throughout her body. The pulling became stronger and stronger, as if she was a black hole sucking the existence out of every living soul. She gasped and sputtered struggling with nausea and fever and terror all in one blistering stream of agony. All her energy and all her soul were being drawn into her very center. It was as if she was about to explode into a million pieces when the pressure become to strong.
"Sabs!" there was a gasp from Hannah.
Sabine opened her eyes and light-headedness overcame her. In her blurred vision, she saw all the hunters floating in a circle around her as if in orbit. She was like the sun, a glowing center of an entire galaxy of chaos. It all lasted for a brilliant moment, until the pressure became too much for her. It happened so suddenly, like a gust of wind so soon forgotten. She released all the pressure within her. As she did so, like flailing feathers in a hurricane the dreaded murderers flew in every which direction, landing with a menacing, dark, sharp splash in the water below.
The release of pressure was almost worse than the gathering of it. She felt like a deflated balloon and gasped for breath. With the look of a deer in headlights, she fell to her knees, letting the remains of her half-digested breakfast spew onto the asphalt bridge. Still coughing and sputtering, she only seemed to flip out of her trance when Tyler put a questioning hand on her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Mike asked.
"F...ff...fine..." she sputtered, falling back into a coughing spell and letting loose more of her breakfast.
"What the hell was that?" Amit asked, though not unkindly.
"Ah...don' know..."
"Sabine! Tyler! Amit! Alyce! Hannah! Mike! Extreme! Ve're here!" Viktor called from the helicopter, letting the rope down to the now relatively mutant-safe George Washington Bridge.
"Extreme," Tyler took charge, addressing the younger X-Children, "Are you all alright?"
Muriel, eyes and nose dripping whimpered out her answer, "No...Tamara...she...she..." the young girl stammered, pointing to the spot where the girl, leg crippled and twisted under her body now thoroughly chewed on by the hounds.
"What about the girl who was shot?" Tyler asked, although his confident leader-like air was fading, and softening.
"I...I...I'm alright...it hurts though..." Naryce said, trying to seem just as leader-like as Tyler.
Amit walked over and looked at the wound. "It just skimmed her. She'll heal. But it will leave a scar."
"Why did they send you out here in the first place," Alyce asked, laying a hand on poor mangled Tamara's forehead, as if feeling for a sign of life.
"The...the...professor wanted a hound, miss," Quixel explained.
"He wanted a flamin' hound!" Amit was enraged, "This!" he cried gesturing to the body, "For a damn hound? We've looked at hounds five hundred and one times and we've lost this for a hound!" The boy was wild as he searched around the bridge where the carcasses of the hunters whom he had shocked lay. He picked up the carcass of a hound and tossed it in front of the feet of the others, "Well there's his bloody hound!"
The Neo-X-Men stood just staring at the poor girl, each of them knowing how easily it could have been them lying there cold as steel.
"She...she was too young to die, wasn't she?" Tyler sighed, "She was too young to be a part of this! She had no idea what she was signing herself into."
"Sometimes I think we're too young," Sabine stomped off, grabbing Hannah and Alyces' hands as they all climbed up the rope and into the helicopter. Tyler stayed behind and helped the younger X-Children climb. Handing the hound carcass up, he took one last look at the poor Tigress body, and then finally ascended himself.
Naryce's com link crackled to life. "Mission accomplished Sir," she tried to sound confident, "One casualty. One injury."
"Good." Was the only reply. There was a click and she turned to Tyler, tears streaming at her eyes.
"Is this what success always feels like?" she asked, her ten year old eyes starting to become fountains.
Tyler was about to answer, when Alyce scooped the girl up in her arms and comforted her. Alyce was everyone's big sister. Tyler couldn't but help agree with the crying girl. This felt nothing like a victory should.
***
"So mah powers have evolved," Sabine repeated after the professor.
"Yes, it seems that the full extent of your powers is greatly powerful. Every object, and organism on earth has its own field of gravity. You see, right now all of you probably have a spec of dust spinning around you in orbit, like a moon!"
"Mine's called Bob!" Mike interrupted, his head tilting this way and that as if looking for his dust-spec moon.
There was mechanical noise that resembled the clearing of a throat. "Anyhow, Sabine, you can actually manipulate your gravity and make it incredibly strong, or incredibly weak."
"So when Ah could pull stuff out of pictures with mah de-evolved powers..."
"What you were doing was manipulating your gravity so that an object in the second demention could be pulled into the third. Don't you understand what this means! Perhaps you could pull something out of the fourth dimension! Freeze a moment of time! You could have the key to time travel!"
"Ah don' want to freeze time!" Sabine yelled, suddenly furious, "Why is this all you can concentrate on? We lost a life today and I think she deserves more than a second's pause!"
"Yes, quite tragic really," The professor paused a moment, "But I have exciting news! I have been developing a new technology that I want all of you to test out on the field. Tomorrow!"
"We have been out on two flamn' missions in a row!" Amit yelled.
"The day after tomorrow then. But I do wish you wouldn't wait. This technology could revolutionize the cause!"
"Sir," Alyce said quietly, "I do think the team needs a rest. And we probably should help Extreme deal with this mission." She rubbed her hand still red from all the tiny hands that had clutched it in the course of the day.
"I second that opinion," Tyler said.
"And I third it," Hannah spoke up.
"Very well. You shall rest tomorrow. But the next day, you will try this new technology. No ands, ifs, or buts. Dismissed."
Somewhat dismal, they all went their separate ways. Though none would admit it, the haunted image of the brutalized nine-year-old body still hung in their minds.
