Please see part 1 for disclaimers...there were just too many to
remember...hehee :)

Thank you for the reviews!!!  Sorry about the formatting issues…hopefully it will be okay!


A New Breed

Authors: I_Woman aka Da Peanut Butter, Alli aka Da Chocolate, aka
InvisoBorg, Miami_Momma aka LithiumBorg, aka M&Ms

Grappling hooks may be needed...for this one.



Chapter 9



Claire watched over Sloan who was stretched out on Darien's chair as
she took a much needed rest. When Claire received the phone call from
Alex that they found Ed, Claire was elated, but as Alex continued,
she found out that they only found his location, and not Ed himself.

Claire and Sloan continued on their work, but Sloan remained
distracted. Not only was she worried about both Ed and Tom, but now
she was confused by emerging feelings for someone she just met. 'Both
Tom and Ed are out there, but I keep thinking about Agent Fawkes. He
looks like Ed, but he has that hidden strength like Tom.'

Sloan continued to struggle with her feelings as she fell into a
restless sleep.

Claire breathed a long sigh, patted Sloan on the back, and walked
over to her computer to continue her research. Her thoughts started
to drift.

"What have you stumbled across?"

***********************************

Arnaud led Ed, who was flanked by the two goons to the lab. One of the
assistants was frantically mopping the floor, trying to avoid eye
contact with Ed. Almost as if he knew Ed would be Arnaud's next
victim.

Ed looked in disbelief, "The body isn't even cold yet and..."

"..and what....I mourned for him. He was no where as intelligent as I
hoped. Funeral over, now lets move on."

Ed stared at the blood-soaked mop and muttered under his breath,
"Non-Dominant my a....."

"Excuse me?"

Ed turned around and faced Arnaud, "So, what is it exactly that you
want me to do for you?"

"I want you to fix something for me."

"What, like your Bunsen burner or something.."

"Oh...so you do share your evil twin's so-called wit. No, I want you
to fix this." Arnaud walked over to the lab table, picked up a glass
jar, and walked back over to Ed held it in his face.

Ed eyed the item closely, "What exactly is it?"

"It's a gland you idiot."

"I've worked with many glands in a variety of species, and...."

Arnaud cut him off, "Yes...yes...this is a gland. It's a bio-synthetic
gland that has a special function. Furthermore, this particular gland
was cloned.."

"Cloned?"

"...cloned and placed in a cow..."

"...wait a minute, did you say 'cow'?..."

Arnaud rolled his eyes and continued his explanation, ".....and
produced a most valuable substance. I've made some interesting
improvements. However, there is a problem. This gland works solely
from my adrenalin because the original was extracted from my head."

Ed stared at Arnaud in disbelief, "Extracted from your head...this
bio-synthetic gland? What is its function?"

"Invisibility."

"Invisibility?" Ed nearly sounded skeptical.

"Oui, Monsieur." Arnaud walked back towards the table, placed the
glass jar on the desk, and picked up a canister. He began to unscrew
the top as he walked back over to Ed.

"How is that possible?" Ed watched Arnaud cautiously; he was not sure
what Arnaud was going to do.

Arnaud motioned to the two goons, "Hold him." Ed instinctively
stepped back from the guards, but they seized him quickly.

Arnaud walked towards Ed and gave a nod to the guards, "Hold out his
arm."

Ed struggled, but the goons were too strong. 'I need to work out
more' Ed thought to himself. One of the men held out Ed's right arm
towards Arnaud.

"Wha...what are you doing?"

Arnaud raised the canister over Ed's arm, "Not seeing is believing."

He tilted the canister and poured a silvery substance over Ed's arm.
Ed flinched as the ice cold liquid hit his skin.

"Wha....what is this..." Ed stared in amazement as his arm turned
into what looked like a liquid mirror, reflecting everything around
it before it suddenly disappeared. He couldn't believe what he just
saw, he could feel his arm, but he just couldn't see it. As Ed
studied his "missing" arm, he began to mumble to himself.

"A 1.6 differential gland of any type, even with the use of the
synthesis of the nano-tick's secretions....those were electrically
charged...but this seems to be a complex semi-fluid polymer. It must
possess a refractive metallic matrix."

Arnaud's face turned from smug to shock when he heard the familiar
theories of the 9300 project.

Ed with fear and astonishment gazed at Arnaud.

Arnaud took a step closer to Ed and whispered, "What did you
say.....?!"

Before Arnaud could finish, there was a series of loud crashes from
outside the lab. Arnaud turned towards the noise, 'Chrysalis, they
found me'.

Ed saw this distraction as his only chance to get away. He thrust his
"quicksilvered" arm down and back into the man's stomach then an
elbow to his nose, snapping it instantly. The man fell back holding
his face. Ed brought up his left leg and came down on the other man's
kneecap, and he immediately fell back in pain.

Arnaud saw the struggle and quickly put the canister down and reached
for his gun.

Ed immediately jumped on Arnaud, sending Arnaud and the lab table
with all its contents crashing to the floor. Ed tried for the gun
with his right hand, but it was still "quicksilvered" and could not
gage where his hand was. The best Ed could do was to knock the gun
out of Arnaud's hand. The gun went flying across the laboratory
floor.

Ed continued to struggle with Arnaud both trying to find any other
weapon within their reach. A scalpel was a few inches from Arnaud's
hand, Ed tried to push it away, but became distracted as his arm
started to reappear in a shower of silver flakes.

Arnaud broke free of Ed's grip, grabbed the scalpel and plunged it
into Ed's side. Ed let out a scream and fell back clutching his side.
Arnaud scrambled to his feet, grabbed the vial and canister and
looked back at Ed.

"Until we meet again, Monsieur." Arnaud turned on his heels and ran
out of the opposite door just as Ray and Alex crashed through the
doors.

*************

After Stark locked Darien in one of the freezers, he took off to try
and find a phone. As he left the building, Lynch came inside. Like a
lion on the prowl he followed the trail of blood to an area in front
of a large freezer door. He bent down and held up Darien's bloody
jacket, "So, I shot the one who would be Ed Tate."

Lynch stood up; he could feel pain and weakness coming from Darien. A
picture of Darien lying in one of the freezers came into Lynch's mind
and he was alone. It was just a matter of finding out which freezer
Darien was in.

Lynch picked up an old meat hook off the floor and started hitting
the big metal doors with it. It echoed through the empty building. He
wanted Darien to hear him coming; he wanted to feel the fear in him.

"I know you're here, I can feel you...*clang*...I can hear your heart
beat...*clang*..."

Darien was in total darkness when he came around. Was he really awake
or still in the darkness of unconsciousness? He heard loud banging
sounds and a voice. It jolted him quickly into reality that he was
being hunted down. A blurred image popped in his mind. He shook it
off, thinking that it was just his mind playing tricks on him. His
eyes quicksilvered so he could see better in the darkness, but that
didn't help much. There really wasn't enough light for him. In this
case his personal night vision wasn't working.


"I can feel your fear...*clang ."

Lynch opened a freezer, empty. He closed the door and moved on.
Instead of hitting the old meat hook on the doors, he was just
running it along the doors. The sound of metal scratching would be
enough to make anyone cringe. Nails on a chalk board, a key
scrapping along the side of a car didn't compare to the sound this
made.

Darien heard the horrible sound and felt for the wall. Every muscle
in his body ached and felt like they were on fire. It was painful to
move, but he had to hide some how. He didn't know how he knew, but
Lynch was outside. It wasn't so much the noise that made him realize
this; it was something else that he couldn't understand, like a
feeling or sense. Predators can smell their prey and vice a versa.
Pain shot through his head and along with it, came a picture.

The picture was fuzzy, not really distinguishable, but enough to let
him know that someone had a rather large sharp object and was moving
closer to a door, the door that Darien was hiding behind.

With all the effort Darien could muster, he quicksilvered. The large
metal door muffled the sounds, but some how he knew that two more
people joined the search.

He heard shouts and then some gun shots. Darien perked up when he
realized that it wasn't two people that joined the search, but it was
a rescue. The question that came to Darien's mind was who exactly was
doing the rescuing, Chrysalis or Hobbes?

Darien knew that he was trapped, Chrysalis agents would have on
thermals and he was too weak to fight. He let the quicksilver drop
off; it wouldn't be of any use anyway. He resigned himself to fate
and hoped that it would be Hobbes that opened the door.

****

Sloan had gone to the Official's office when Eberts informed that Dr.
Walter Attwood had arrived from Los Angeles. Claire had been going
over the research when the door to keep swung open and Ed was brought
in on a gurney, "What happened to Dar....?"

"They dropped him off......." One of the men said.

"Who's they, and where's Hob...."

The man didn't hear Claire, he cut her off as he addressed the other
agent who assisted him with the gurney, "Quick, we need to help the
others." The two men ran out of the room leaving her alone to tend to
her patient.

She noticed a red stain on the side of his shirt. "Oh Darien, what
did you get yourself into now. And where is your partner? I hope
Bobby's all right."

Claire felt his pulse on his neck. "Good, very strong." She refocused
on the red stain and lifted his shirt to reveal a deep gash
underneath a swatch of gauze. "Oh dear. That's a little deep...
what's this?" A little tuft of red cloth protruding out of the side
of his jeans caught her eye.

"Oh Darien, I hope you're not injured any where else." Claire began to
examine the area further. She pulled the jeans and the cloth away
from his skin and gently felt beneath the cloth, "Good, no
cuts....oh, hello."

Claire continued to pull on the cloth, "Boxers, and colorful ones at
that? Since when did he start wearing..." She stopped in mid-
sentence as he began to wake.

"Whoa....ah....where am I?" Ed opened his eyes and looked into
Claire's blue eyes. She was holding on to something, his eyes
followed down her arm to her hand that was clutching the top of his
favorite multicolored boxer shorts, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Dar..," She stopped suddenly as an awful thought hit her. Claire
released the waistband, quickly grabbed his right wrist, and let out
a gasp. There was no tattoo, only a circular scar. Claire paused and
looked into the face of the man lying on the gurney, "Ah bum."

Ed shook his head, "No, no...not you too. I guess Agent Fawkes is into
'briefs' judging by the way you were holding on to my boxers."

Claire blushed slightly, "Ah....yes. I'm so sorry."

"We can't possibly look that much alike. Could we?"

Claire did not answer; she continued to stare at Ed in astonishment.
Ed cocked his head to one side, "I would say that's a resounding yes.
You must be Claire Keeply. Agent Monroe and Ray filled me in on
everything, well, before I passed out in the car."

"Yes...yes, I am," Claire sounded befuddled. The man looked like
Darien, talked like him, even dressed like him to some extent, but
the hair was not the same.

"Well, I'm Ed, Ed Tate," He gave her a weak smile and continued, "but
I guess you know that now. I'm really enjoying this conversation but
I seem to have a little problem," Ed motioned down to the blood
soaked 4x4 gauze.

"What happened?" Claire asked as she put her gloves on.

"Well, you know, Arnaud and I fought and I got the worst end of it. He
stabbed me with a scalpel just below the 11th rib. I don't think he
hit the kidney or any other vital organs."

Claire raised her brow at him and smiled. Ed looked a little
perplexed, "What's so funny?"

"You actually, you look so much like Darien, sound like him and
nearly dress like him and yet...you two are so different." Claire
removed the gauze, "It looks a little deep. You'll need to take your
shirt off so I can clean and dress the wound properly."

Ed sat up with some help from Claire and removed his shirt. Claire
stared for a moment and then shook her self back into reality. "Okay,
turn on your left side and I'll get started," Claire brought the mayo
tray over with her supplies. "Oh, so where's Agent Monroe and
Detective Peterson?"

Ed winced as he slowly turned on his side, "They dropped me off and
went to help Agent Hobbes and Tom with finding Agent Fawkes."

"I hope they will find him soon."

"Yes, evidently I wasn't the only one to experience an 'identity
crisis'." Ed watched Claire as she worked. "So, Claire...can I call
you Claire?" Claire nodded her approval and Ed continued, "Tell me
about the gland and how does Agent Fawkes trigger the flow of the
refractive liquid metallic matrix?"

Claire nearly dropped the bottle of Iodine on the floor, "How did you
know..." Claire was cut off by Sloan running into the Keep.

Sloan saw Ed and sighed in relief, "You're okay. Did he hurt you?"

"Just a scalpel in the side, but other than that, I'm okay."

"Glad to hear it, Ed," Dr. Walter Attwood walked into the Keep along
with the Official and Eberts. "Let me introduce you to some people
Ed, this is the Official, he's in charge of this agency that found
you and this is Eberts, the bookkeeper you might say."

The Official and Eberts eyes went wide when they saw Ed. "Amazing,"
The Official said.

"Uncanny resemblance, Dr. Tate," Eberts walked over to Ed and bent
down to get a better look.

"Eberts!" The Official barked and Eberts went back to standing next
to him.

"I guess I need to meet this Agent Fawkes, it appears I do have a
TWIN!!!!" Ed's voice went up when Claire started to clean his wound.

"Sorry, I have to make sure it's clean." Claire said apologetically.

*********************************

Darien leaned up against the back wall, no strength to fight and
virtually no will. Where is that adrenaline that people get to fight
for life? For Darien, it backed its bags and headed out of Dodge.

The sound of something being broken off the door made Darien's heart
skip a beat. With a creak and a moan, the door slowly opened. The
light came in and all Darien could see was a silhouette of a man
standing in the door way.

"Fawkes?" The silhouette spoke.

Darien recognized the voice nearly immediately, he answered back the
best way he knew how, "Hobbes, it's about time." Darien slid down the
wall and rested on the floor.

Hobbes ran up to him, "Fawkes, are you hurt?" There was no answer.
Hobbes felt Darien's face, "Oh crap, you're burning up."

Tom came in and looked at the two men. Human compassion for each
other, he felt it strongly from Hobbes. Lewis may have a harder time
defeating the humans after all. The human determination for survival
was stronger than even Tom thought.

Hobbes looked up at Tom, "Help me with him; I need to get him to the
Keeper."

Tom paused, "Keeper?"

"Yeah, Claire, his keeper, now will you move it!" Hobbes voice sounded
uneasy.

Tom helped Hobbes carry Darien to the van. Lynch and Lewis were close
by, that he knew for sure. Tom stayed with Darien in the back as
Hobbes drove like never before. Hobbes had called Claire to let her
know that he and Tom had found Darien, but that Darien was in bad
shape. He did the best he could to tell what was wrong and that's
when Darien decided to scream out in pain. Hobbes dropped the phone
and nearly lost control of the van.

Claire heard the scream and the phone drop, "Bobby!...Bobby!!!" Claire
looked concerned. Something had happened, "Bobby, was that Darien?
Bobby!!" She heard Hobbes cursing like a Brooklyn native. She
covered the receiver with her hand. The smile on her face
said 'excuse me'.

"Claire! Claire, are you there?" Hobbes shot back.

"Yeah, Bobby, please tell me that wasn't Darien."

"It was, Keepie, I don't know what's wrong with him. He's in a lot of
pain, Claire, please tell me he's not gonna die."

"Bobby, you have to remain calm, just get him here as fast as you
can. I'll be waiting for you at the back door." Claire hung up the
phone and looked at the others in dismay, "They found Darien and he's
been hurt."


TBC...

*three evil grins....hehee*