Mystic Mutants The Tale of Henry John Braddock
Prologue
Madalyn Ruth Evans strode down a long metal corridor, sterilized air filling her lungs and cooling her pale skin. Reaching behind her, she tightened the band that held her red hair into a bun, her pale green eyes never leaving the door in front of her. Lowering her hand from her head, she curled it into a fist.
'She was here; she finally found it the main company that bought Eden village's technology.'
Eden village is a village established by Mordred Pendragon in the fifth century. Mordred led an exodus of Otherworlders, dwarves, and elves with the X gene out of Otherworld to escape persecution and death. With them, they brought technology from their races and skills. Combining them, they created a portal that allowed them to reach into other universes and pull things out.
With that and a village telepath, they could pull mutants and technology from other realities that had the right mindset to fit in with the village. For over a thousand years, things were peaceful. Then in the 1950s, they were betrayed. The portal that reached into other realities was rigged to explode, while her parents were inside retrieving people from a zombie world.
The portal was eventually repaired, but when they looked into the zombie universe, they found no sign of her parents. It was deemed too dangerous by the Council of races to send an expedition inside.
After discovering the circumstances of her parent's disappearance in the zombie world, she made it her mission to find the one responsible. Twenty-three years later, her investigation led her here.
A thin red light scanned her body before the door hissed open, releasing a sterilized fog into the narrow space.
Stepping onto a giant metal catwalk, Madalyn stared over the railing at an open circular space with a concrete floor. Mounted to the far wall was a complex gyroscope-like device.
As Madalyn watched, the device's rings spun, creating distortions in the air around it before they froze and opened a pale blue portal. Air rushed into the room, pulling open Madalyn's lab coat and revealing the seafoam-colored blouse and khaki skirt she wore.
A woman appeared in a flash of light; her arms curled around her pregnant belly as she screamed. Dark red hair splayed out on the concrete floor, and Emerald eyes scanned her surroundings as her screams echoed off the concrete walls.
An arched doorway at the far end of the space below opened, and people in white hazmat suits strode towards the woman.
Her eyes flashed a bright green as telekinetic force pushed them away and lifted them into the air. A contraction caused her to scream. Her arms tightened around her belly, the force holding the hazmat people in place, dropping them to the floor.
One of the hazmat people pulled out a small device. The gun-like device launched a small disc at the woman, hitting her neck. A blue light on the device flashed red upon impact in the green glow in the woman's eyes faded.
The woman's eyes widened, "No," she screamed, raising one hand from her protruding belly, "stay away," energy crackled between her fingers.
Madalyn's eyes widened. 'Magic.'
"We have a mystic," one of the people in hazmat suits called out.
"Roger that," another replied, placing a hand on the wall. Sigils blazed to life along the concrete and the magic crackling between the woman's fingers faded.
As the magic faded, the third figure in a hazmat suit stepped forward, "She'll need to be placed in a coma until the child is born; she's too dangerous to leave conscious." Agreed, the one that activated the runes replied.
The one with the gun-like device hit a button, and the small disc on the woman's neck turned purple. Violet energy swept through her body.
Her eyes widened for a moment before they began to drift closed. Just before she lost consciousness, her eyes locked with Madalyn's, and a thought pierced her mind, 'They know.'
–XX –
Madalyn sat at a long white plastic table in the facility's cafeteria, staring at the steaming cup of coffee and chocolate cream-filled doughnut in front of her. They were her two favorite foods, but at the moment, she couldn't get what she heard from the newest arrival out of her mind. The words "They know" just kept repeating over and over.
Picking up the coffee, she took a sip, her gaze panning around the massive space. Long tables were sat throughout the room with Brown metal chairs underneath them. A smattering of people spread throughout the room, hunched over their food or talking to coworkers.
If she was found out, would any of these people help her? She shook her head. Who was she kidding? They were complicit in taking people from other universes.
Her village did the same, to give the people a new chance at life, to inject fresh blood and ideas into the village, but are they any different than the people at the facility? Did the people they rescued even want to live?
Hot liquid ran down her hand, causing her to hiss. She looked down to find that she had crushed her paper cup. Madalyn stood to her feet. Whether it was right or wrong to pull people from their universe as they were about to die, she didn't know, but what she did know was that what the facility was doing was wrong. Her people gave them another chance at life. The facility was knocking them unconscious and at least collecting DNA samples, probably more.
Shaking the coffee off her hand, Madalyn picked up her doughnut. Wrapping it in a napkin, she slipped it into the pocket of her lab coat. It was time to find out what this new arrival knew, and then she would do what she could to help her escape with her child. No child deserves to grow up in a place like this.
Madalyn stepped away from her chair, only to freeze as the lights turned red and an alarm began blaring through the facility. Everyone in the cafeteria rose to their feet and started sprinting towards the door. Madalyn moved with them, her white lab coat trailing behind her. As she reached the door, she placed a hand on a guard's shoulder, "Any idea what's going on?"
The guard turned, lifting his rifle slightly, "The child of the new arrival has been born, and his powers are already active." The building shook as a wave of energy swept through it, and the metal walls began running like melted wax.
The guard spoke again; his voice raised to be heard over the clamor around him, "All nonessential personnel needs to stay where they are."
While the guard was talking, Madalyn slipped past him and sprinted down the hallway. As she moved, she noticed the distortions of the building worsen the further in she got. The tile floor had buckled upwards from the first blast, and metal spikes jutted out from the walls.
Madalyn paused before the spikes, "What have they brought into the world?" She reached out a hand; gray flame-like energy danced around her palm like a second skin. "Reconfiguration," her pale green eyes flashed one white, one black before the energy burst from her palm.
The tile floor shifted, its jagged pieces fading back into place and smoothing out. The metal spikes protruding from the wall withdrew, becoming smooth, unblemished construction.
Madalyn moved down the hallway, flicking her left hand out behind her as she made it through. Gray energy bursts out from her fingers, returning the hallway to its destroyed state. Turning a corner, she arrived at one of the medical rooms just in time for another blast of power to send her staggering backward a step. Her eyes widened as she began to sink into the floor.
She slapped her left hand onto the wall, only for it to sink into the metal. Her gaze flicked around her; people in lab coats rushed by her like speeding ants.
"Help," she called. Some glanced at her, but they all kept going. Metal pooled up around her thighs, and she cursed. Though no one was paying her any attention, they were too close for her to use her abilities.
Suddenly, bright green energy outlined her body and lifted her from the floor. She floated forward as the voice of the woman from the portal resonated in her mind, "That's two you owe me."
'What,' Madalyn tried to think back as she settled onto the floor.
"Go," the woman replied, "help my son if you can."
Like she was under compulsion, Madalyn moved forward as the long tubular fluorescent lights above her flickered. Finally, she reached a medical room and peered through one of the large bay windows.
People in white hazmat suits were backed against the wall as a baby hovered over a stretcher, a sphere of shadow and fire wrapped around him.
"What is that?" Madalyn muttered.
"Out of the way, out of the way, make way, coming through."
Madalyn turned to find David Michael Grey walking towards them, the head geneticist for the facility and the one who hired her from college.
He was about 5'10" tall with blue eyes and black hair combed to the left. His skin was pale from a life spent in a lab; his starched white lab coat hid the green polo shirt and khaki pants he typically wore.
Beside him walked two other individuals.
The first was Mindy Williams, head of HR, but the way she walked with her back straight and the determined look on her face made Madalyn think there was more to the position, especially if she was here.
She was 5'3" tall with a thin build, blue eyes, and straight blonde hair. Her long sleeve dark green shirt and white pants did very little to help an unflattering figure. Despite the hard look in her eyes, one of her hands was intertwined with that of the third individual.
Gavrel Achter was a tall man with thin limbs poking out of a dark green jumpsuit, short brown hair, and dull grey eyes. He twitched as he walked, his gaze constantly flicking down to a wristwatch. He walked with a hesitant step like he was uncomfortable in his skin. What looked like a three-fingered metal claw dangled from his free hand.
People backed away from their approach, pressing against the metal walls and ignoring the liquid metal that ran over their clothes.
Mindy pulled away from the group, her fingers sliding out a Gavrel's. Entering the room, she staggered backward as another power pulse swept through the room. Her brow furrowed as the metal door frame bent with a screech and the Bay Windows shattered, sending shards of glass flying everywhere.
People screamed and hit the floor, but Madalyn stayed standing, her eyes focused on Mindy.
Beads of sweat popped out on the blonde's brow, and a dim glow appeared in her blue eyes.
Slowly, the energy around the baby began to flicker and dim.
Mindy's hand shook as blood began to flow from one nostril. "Alright," she snapped, falling to one knee, "he's calm place the inhibitor on him."
With surprising speed, Gavrel entered the room. The claw sprang open with the press of a button, its limbs wide. Slowly he placed it around the child's head.
The limbs tightened around the baby's skull; Gavrel stepped back as a red light blazed to life on the back of the device.
"There, we won't have any more problems."
David nodded, "Good, you will need to get some blood work. It's unusual for a child this young to have that much power," he turned to Madalyn, "Ms. Evans, it looks like you need to head to the infirmary."
Jumping at the sound of her name, Madalyn looked down at herself, finding shards of glass sticking into her exposed skin. Nodding stiffly, she turned away, one thought in her mind.
'Mindy definitely has powers, and if people with power are working here, then there's more going on than I thought.'
–XX –
At 1:30 in the morning, Madalyn entered her apartment, dropping her keys onto a table near the door. Her hand glided along the wall as she moved deeper. Eventually, her slender fingers ran across a light switch. Flipping it, she winced at the sudden brightness. Making her way over to the couch, she sat down, staring at the coffee table in front of her as her mind replayed the day's events.
She had found the company that bought Eden village's technology. Mutants are working there against their own kind, but why, and what does she do with that information?
She leaned back, her left hand coming to rest on her forehead. Feeling the bandages against her skin, she pulled her hand away and stared at it. White wrappings covered her palm in the back of her hand, weaving in between her fingers.
The child had such incredible power. The woman knows something. Should she really trust this woman? She is a stranger from another world.
A small voice in her mind countered, telling her that the stranger was brought here against her will, with her unborn son no less.
Madalyn shook her head, "Regardless of anything else, the portals are programmed to only take those about to die, so the facility saved her life, even if their intentions afterward are less than honorable."
Her hand curled into a fist; who was she kidding? She was trying to make herself feel better by thinking that. She knew by how they treated the woman that they were up to no good, and she would be in for a life of pain.
The way it was, she had two choices before her, trust the woman or contact someone from Eden village for help, and she wasn't going to do the latter; she wouldn't put her people at risk.
Releasing a breath, Madalyn leaned forward, the pointer finger of her right-hand glowing. Sitting her pointer finger in the middle of the coffee table, she began to move it across the surface. Grooves appeared in her finger's wake as she drew a complex three-dimensional ritual circle of geometric designs.
When she was finished, it looked like a gyroscope with a diamond in the center.
Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward and blew across the symbols removing the ash from the grooves. She then leaned back and stared at the character.
Did she dare activate the character? It would use the redhead's connection and pull their minds to a neutral meeting place, but she didn't know who the woman was or her powers.
She would be putting herself in danger.
However, if they knew her past and why she was there, was she in any more danger? Could this woman give her the answers she sought?
Leaning forward, her left hand flared with the energy of creation. White energy flowed from her hand and into the lines of the symbol. Once the grooves were full, light consumed her vision.
–XX –
Madalyn found herself sitting on her couch in her living room. Slowly, she twisted her head from side to side, noticing everything around her was see-through, "Where am I?" Her question echoed around her as if it was traveling a vast distance.
Suddenly, her apartment dispersed into a thousand leaves and disappeared in a whirlwind. She now stood on a hilltop overlooking a vast fertile plane of waist-high grass that swayed in a gentle breeze. Madalyn glanced at the sun, noticing she couldn't feel its warmth on her skin, "Am I dead?"
"No, you have entered the astral plane, a plane that psychics and magic users can access that overlaps our own reality."
Madalyn turned, finding the woman from the facility standing behind her, her child cradled in her arms. She stood there, taking the chance to observe the woman.
The woman was 5'6" tall with wavy red hair and bright green eyes. The black dress she wore highlighted the curve of her hips and the swell of her breasts. Unconsciously, Madalyn raised her hand, measuring herself.
She stood confidently as if nothing in the world could touch her. Every few minutes, she glanced down at the baby in her arms, pure maternal love shining in her eyes.
Realizing what she was doing, she shook her head, her gaze sharpening, "Who are you, and what did you mean they know?"
Lily stared at her for a long moment before blinking, "I guess manners aren't a thing in this universe." Shifting the child, Lily stared into her eyes, her own admitting a slight glow, "I am Lily Grey Braddock, and the higher-ups of the facility know you're a mutant and that you're looking into who gave them the portal technology."
"How long have they known, and how did they find out?" Madalyn asked, moving forward a step.
Madelyne tilted her head to the side, "Come now, I'm sure you know the answer to that."
Madalyn's gaze drifted to the ground, "They have people with power working for them," her head snapped up, "but why, why would mutants betray their own kind?"
"If offered the right things," Lily began shifting her legs until she lowered herself into a cross-legged position, "people will do horrible things." She waved her right hand, her left cradling her son, "But don't worry, I've already removed that knowledge from their minds and found the answer to your question."
Madalyn took another step forward, eyes wide, "You know who sold the technology to the facility? You know who caused my parents to die." She stopped a foot away from the woman, her right hand outstretched, "who…."
A force pushed Madalyn back, sending her skidding across the grass, "Knowledge isn't free; I'll tell you what you want to know, but in return, I want your help."
Blades of grass floated in the air between them.
Madalyn's eyes flashed, one black and one white, "What do you want?"
Lily glanced down at her son, "I want you to get my son out of the facility when the time is right?"
"Why can't you do it?"
Pain flashed across Lily's features, "They have ensured I won't be able to escape."
"What do you mean?"
Madelyne locked eyes with Madalyn, and an image was forced into Madalyn's mind.
A brain floated in a long cylindrical tank, the top of its skull still attached, bright red hair floating around it.
"While I was recovering from childbirth, they placed an inhibitor on me and did this."
Madalyn screamed, the sound echoing through the astral plane.
