Emma and Shalimar reached their destination and made their way into the building. Emma scanned the area with a small, handheld device. "I'm getting a reading on the second floor, just above us."
They made their way up a set of stairs to the second floor. Shalimar walked in front of Emma as Emma continued scanning, hearing the machine beeping louder as they walked along. As Shalimar looked around, Emma looked at the rusted railing that lined the second floor hallway where they were standing. She walked over to Shalimar and stood in front of her as she looked at the small screen of her scanning device. She turned down the volume of the machine and then turned it all the way up so it beeped loudly. Pretending to be scared, she screamed and backed up into Shalimar, pushing her into the railing. The badly rusted railing soon gave way and allowed Shalimar to fall over the side towards the first floor.
Emma heard a crash from below and smiled. Turning around, she looked over the railing and saw that Shalimar had landed on a pile of cardboard boxes which broke her fall.
Emma swore to herself and then realized she had to play it up as an accident. "Shalimar!" she yelled as she made her way down to the first floor to where Shalimar was just getting to her feet. "Are you okay? I'm so sorry!"
Shalimar brushed off her leather jacket. "We ferals always land on our feet," she said jokingly.
"I'm sorry. The noise of the machine freaked me out. And I..."
Shalimar put up her hand. "No need to apologize, it's okay. I'm okay." She rubbed Emma's arm. "I'll go up there, you stay put down here. I'll be back in a few minutes."
Shalimar went back up to the second floor to carry out their mission while Emma stood with her arms folded across her chest. "Problems, Emma?" Eckhart said.
"No," she whispered, trying not to let Shalimar hear her in the echoic building.
"I should hope not. Please try not to be so careless next time."
Emma's eyes narrowed in frustration.
Shalimar returned downstairs with a small, black briefcase. "Got it! Let's go," she said as she carefully carried the briefcase.
When Emma and Shalimar returned back to sanctuary they handed the briefcase to Adam who took it from them as if he were handling a newborn baby.
Rushing off to the lab, he set it down gently on the table. "You run into any problems out there?" he asked as he carefully opened the case.
Shalimar looked at Emma and then back at Adam. "No, no problems at all. Piece of cake."
Adam's eyes widened at the site of the briefcase's contents, four vials that contained some type of blue liquid. "I've got a lot of work to do with these so why don't you two go hang out for a while. Brennan and Jesse should be back later. We'll have a quick meeting when they return."
Both Shalimar and Emma nodded and left the lab.
"I'm gonna crash in my room for a little while and finish up this book that I've been trying to finish for about a month now." Shalimar walked down the hallway and then went upstairs to her room.
Emma waited for a few moments and then went off in the direction that Shalimar had just went in.
Shalimar laid on her bed, reading her book when suddenly the lights went out. She got up from the bed and started walking over to the light switch on the wall but was struck in the face with something, sending her to the floor on her back. She shook it off and attempted to get up but found someone on top of her, throwing numerous punches at her. She managed to block some of them and tossed the person off of her.
She got to the light switch and flipped it up but the lights remained off.
Just as she was about to attempt at going into feral mode, in order to see in the dark, something was sprayed in her eyes. It burned and hindered her mutant power.
Her attacker lunged at her and slammed her hard against the wall, her ribs ramming into the steel edge of the doorway trim.
More punches hit her face and then she felt a searing pain in the left side of her stomach. Dropping to her knees, she clutched her stomach, feeling warm blood flowing all over her hands. Then she fell to the floor.
Her attacker dragged her over to the closet and tossed her inside.
A few minutes passed and the light in Shalimar's room went back on. Emma soon appeared, towels in hand. She quickly began wiping Shalimar's blood from the floor.
Satisfied with her clean up, she turned out the light and left the room.
As Emma returned downstairs, she ran into Brennan and Jesse who had just returned. "Hey, Emma. You and Shalimar get those vials?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah. Adam's working on them right now."
"Where's Shalimar?" Brennan asked.
"She's um, I think she went home. She wasn't feeling so good after we came back."
"I hope she's okay," Jesse said.
"She'll be fine. I think it's just a head cold or something," Emma said. "Adam wants to meet with all of us so I guess I'll meet you guys in the conference room."
Brennan pulled out his cell phone and dialed Shalimar's number. The line rang and rang but there was no answer. Her machine clicked on and Brennan left a message. "Hey, it's me. Just called to see if you were okay. Emma said you weren't feeling so hot. Anyway, call me later. Bye."
"She must be sleeping or something," Jesse said. "Come on, let's get to the meeting or else Adam will kill us if we're late."
Their meeting began and Adam quickly realized that Shalimar was not in attendence. "Where's Shalimar?" he asked as he turned to Emma.
"She said she wasn't feeling good and went home."
Adam seemed confused by her answer. "Okay. We'll have to update her later then." He shuffled some papers and then looked at each of the members of the team that sat before him. "Shalimar and Emma went on an important mission today to retrieve some stolen new mutant DNA samples. I got a tip this morning from one of my sources so I sent them out to get them. Luckily they didn't run into any problems."
"So I guess we can assume that Eckhart stole these samples?" Brennan suggested.
"Actually, no. They were stolen from an unknown person or persons. Judging by the tests I've run, they've been there for quite some time. Possibly a few years."
Adam continued to inform them of his recent discovery and Eckhart listened closely to what was being said, through Emma's implant.
After their meeting adjourned, the three new mutants gathered in the hallway.
"You guys want to grab something to eat?" Brennan asked Emma and Jesse.
"Yeah, I'm game," Jesse replied. "What about you, Emma?"
"I've actually got something to take care of first. I'll meet up with you."
"Cool. How about that great Chinese food place down on the corner of Crescent Street?" Brennan suggested.
"Sounds good to me," Jesse said as he and Brennan began to head out.
"Give me about a half hour and I'll meet you there," Emma said as she made her way upstairs.