When the door to the apartment finally opened, Brennan was relieved. Finally, a chance to talk his way out of the situation.
"Hey, uh, any chance of letting me go to the, uh, you know, little boys room?" he asked. Carrying bags into the kitchen area, Anya completely ignored him.
Gritting his teeth, he tried again. "Sweetheart, I really need you over here." Almost faster than thought, she was by his side, face expectantly waiting to bloom with joy.
"Really?" she asked, "What exactly do you need me for?"
"I uh…" He looked into her eyes then and saw properly for the first time that there really wasn't even the tiniest spark of sanity there.
"Liar!" she screamed, rage twisted her features into cruelty. She ran to the kitchen and sobbed loudly for some time before returning with a carving knife. "I'm sorry, Brennan," she said with a sweet little smile, "but I can't cope with your lying deceitful ways. I've come to realize that you're right, it could never work between us, because I'm too good for you."
Brennan nodded his agreement. Whatever rationalization worked for her, worked for him just as well. Only he wasn't too certain whether the knife was intended to cut him or the tape. She leaned in to kiss him, but he turned his head away. "Not even a last one?" she asked sadly.
"It wouldn't be fair on either of us," Brennan told her, and she screamed, right in his face, making him jump violently before bringing the knife down.
*****
Hearing Brennan's shout of denial, Shalimar kicked the door down. It hadn't
been too hard to find out where the rainbow haired girl lived, as her colouring
hardly invited anonymity. It had simply
been a matter of legwork.
Taking in the scene before them, Shalimar pounced to disarm the screaming girl while Emma sent a short psionic blast to stun her.
Breathing heavily from his mummification, Brennan gulped and managed, "Thanks, guys." The slashes made were mostly the superficial hit and miss of hysteria, the tape sliced through in places, some deep enough to leave long thin scratches, but none deep enough to cause major injury.
While Emma ensured that Anya was secured, Shalimar cut and peeled the tape away, wincing as arm hairs were ripped out. "Some people pay good money for this, you know."
But still it was clear that Brennan was in some shock as, normally not stuck for words, he didn't seem to know what to say. With the retrieval of his jacket and boots, however, he seemed to find it easier to return to his usual self. "So, uh," he cleared his throat and indicated the door.
"What about her?" Emma asked.
"Leave her right here. I am having absolutely nothing more to do with psycho-bitch. Can we go now?"
Emma seemed little reluctant to leave, so Shalimar plucked at her sleeve. "She's a big girl, Emma, and she's lucky she isn't being charged for kidnapping and assault."
"I know," Emma sighed, "but she's in so much pain."
"Not our problem," Shalimar said. Then, "Look, Adam has some contacts who could probably help her. We'll have him call someone, okay? Right now we have someone more important here who needs us."
"Actually," Emma said dryly, "I don't think Brennan is having that much of a problem. He just wants to go home."
"I know," Shalimar said simply, and Emma looked at her a moment, then followed.
Emma burst into Adam's lab. "Adam, we need a favour!" And pulled up as she the tense atmosphere hit her like a force ten gale. The man she vaguely recognised as General Sperling was on the big screen, solemn as he imparted his news, and Adam's face was hard as granite.
"I'm sorry, Adam," the man on the screen was saying. "They missed extraction point alpha seventy-two hours ago and were no show for points beta and gamma, the last one due three hours ago. You know what that means."
"You're quite sure?"
"There's nothing I can be sure about. One of the group turned up dead in a river, hardly recognisable after the piranha had their fill. Not your boy, wrong gender for that, but one of his team."
"You know that I have resources, if you point me in the right direction?"
"I can't even tell you what continent." Sperling paused. "I'm sorry to have to give you such bad news, but I have to run. I have to be at seventy one west in thirty six minutes and I'm already late. My condolences."
"What was that about?" Shalimar asked as she came in with Brennan hard on her heels. From the tightly reined anxiety that was emanating from the feral, Emma knew she had to have heard probably as much as she had.
Adam took a deep breath and faced them square on. "As far as the Pentagon is concerned, the assignment they never knew about has been terminated with prejudice. As of three hours ago, Jesse is missing in action."
"And they won't tell us where." An already wound up Brennan slammed a fist into the door with enough force to split his knuckles. "This sucks Adam, we have to be able to do something! What about hacking into the Pentagon's mainframe? Or your friend there, maybe we could get a little of that classified detail from him in person."
"I'm with Brennan," Shalimar said, eyes blazing. "You should never have let him go off like that! Never trust any outsiders!"
"Especially the government," Brennan added vehemently..
"And you have no right sounding so pissed about it!" Shalimar rounded on Brennan. "If you hadn't been thinking with your dick, they wouldn't have got Jesse in the first place!"
"Oh come on, Sha – " Brennan began to retaliate.
"Brennan, Shalimar, enough!" Adam snapped, his demeanour on the surface of it tense but in control, yet his anxiety was running just as high as Shalimar and Brennan's. Emma revelled in the sense of complete control she had, something she'd had to fight most of her life for one way or the other. But since coming to Sanctuary, she'd found herself in more ways then she would have believed possible, to the extent that she found herself occasionally toying with the idea that maybe, one day, she would be the one leading the team.
Adam called up a globe on one of the computers. "I think Sperling was trying to give me a clue," he said. "Seventy one degrees west and thirty six minutes. That's a longitude that goes straight down the American continent. So what else?" he asked thoughtfully.
"Piranhas," suggested Emma helpfully.
"Right, rivers and Piranhas. So, Central or South America." Adam shook his head. "No, there are still thousands of square miles, we can't possible search it all." He lowered his head into hands. "And besides, we have to face it, we'd probably be looking for a corpse."
"No," Shalimar said. "I won't believe that. If Jesse were dead, I'd know, I'm sure of it."
"Shalimar," warned Emma, "you can't know for sure. I don't want to believe it either, but don't-"
"No, you don't understand!" Shalimar's quick temper was rapidly reaching explosive proportions. "Since our powers mutated, I've kind of, kind of bonded with each of you. And I know that if any one of you died, I would know about it. I'm going to take the Helix and you can't stop me."
"Emma, Brennan," Adam began.
"Already on it," Brennan said, turning to follow Shalimar.
"I was going to say, I'll join you," said Adam. "Shalimar's right, we can't stop her, and quite frankly, I don't want to. At the very worst, I need to be able to say we tried our best."
"More than our best," smiled Emma as they jogged towards the hanger.
*****
Shadowed hallucinations accompanied a pounding headache as Jesse struggled to breathe properly. His nose was blocked, probably by blood at least, if it wasn't actually broken, and the violently compulsive shivering made his chest tight and breathing, therefore, necessarily shallow.
With only hearing left to try and decipher the world around him, he was getting pretty good at being able to tell who was coming and going. Eventually, his wandering attention was focused by an unfamiliar clattering noise and shots being fired outside somewhere.
The door opened to running footsteps, and there was a whispered, 'Shit!' followed by a low murmur from a separate voice.
And then hands were touching him.
"Get him untied!" To his fevered mind, it almost sounded like Noah. Or maybe Adam had a cold.
"No, we wait until we have time to do it properly."
And then he was lifted up and over rough cloth covering hard edges. Someone's shoulders he guessed, and he couldn't help but cry out as deeply bruised abdominals took his full weight. The movement of his carrier was so disjointed and painful to him that he was more than happy to pass out.
Bright, was the first thing that Jesse came round to. Everything was bright and indistinct and the light stabbed into his eyeballs, making him groan.
"Wh- what, Cobb, what's wrong with him?" a familiar voice, definitely Noah, asked.
Another voice, Cobb's. he realised, professional and efficient, as were the hands running gently but firmly over his aches and pains. "He'll be a little light sensitive for a while, but he's okay."
"Okay? He doesn't look okay, he's been tortured for crying out loud!"
Jesse rubbed at his eyes, wincing as his abused wrists and shoulders protested loudly, the freedom of movement a welcome if painful experience.
"No, he hasn't, not really," Cobb contradicted. "He's been beaten up pretty thoroughly, a handful of small burns, and looks like someone started skinning his ribs at the back with a scalpel. Drugs of course, but…" Cobb paused a moment. "There are signs that a professional interrogator was present, but in the end they resorted to violence. I know he's your son, but you know as well as I do that, if he'd been tortured, he'd have been dead days ago."
"I know," Noah sighed. "How soon do you think he can move?"
Jesse wanted to tell them to stop talking about him and start talking to him, but dehydration and vocal abuse left his throat swollen and voice a bare whisper.
"I said he's okay; doesn't mean he can run cross country," Cobb admonished. "When he wakes up properly we'll start moving, but we'll have to take it easy if we're all going to get out of this place alive."
"Yeah, well, it's not that simple is it? We still have to finish the mission, don't we?" Inexplicably, Noah sounded incredibly bitter.
"True," Cobb's tone was actually regretful, "but you can't hold that against me."
"Why not? You're the doctor here."
"Medic. I'm a medic, and I have my orders. Horatio is not someone I'd want to cross." Cobb paused, and Jess squinted at him. "Welcome back. How do you feel?"
"Big truck," Jesse managed weakly, and Cobb laughed before offering him a canteen of water, which he sipped from slowly and gratefully.
As he took in the water, and the symptoms of dehydration started to dissipate, the individual hurts began to make themselves known leaving Jesse wishing for the numbing blanket of all-encompassing pain again. He closed his eyes again and curled in on himself, biting back the groans as his injuries each cried out for attention, burns and cuts stinging while deep bruising throbbed in time to his heartbeat.
And the constant shivering that locked his abused stomach muscles rigid.
"It's okay," Cobb's voice was soothing as he covered Jesse with a blanket and rubbed at his extremities. "We'll get you through the shock, see how bad you are in a few hours and then I'll give you something for the pain. It might be hard to believe right now, but you're lucky. I don't think anything's broken."
With wave upon wave of agony washing over him as circulation was restored to parts he hadn't realized he'd lost, he could only think that Cobb had to be the worst liar on the planet.
*****
"We'll have to call it a day," Adam shook his head in defeat.
"No!" Predictably, Shalimar was quick to voice her objections, but Adam was ready for her.
"Yes," he countered. "We all need sleep, and more than that, the Helix needs refuelling. We can be back here tomorrow."
There was no response from the other three, but the atmosphere could have been cut with a knife.
*****
The rain that misted down the following morning was fine, warm and saturated everything. Rivulets ran down ears, noses and necks, tickling, and Jesse couldn't help but giggle uncontrollably as tiny balloons of water filled and dropped endlessly from various features.
He knew that the morphine was having a peculiar effect on him, even though Cobb had told him it was just a very light dose, enough to take the edge off while they had to move. But then again, he'd always been less than tolerant to any drug, not to mention the unknown drugs he'd been given in captivity. He was virtually being carried by either Sharford or Alwin and wondered where Collier had gone.
Time was still playing tricks the same as the pain he wasn't quite feeling, so Jesse had no real idea how long it was taking them to get wherever they were going, but he hoped they got there soon. Because right now, he just wanted to crawl into his bed and stay there until the next Big Bang.
He didn't remember them stopping as such, just knew that one moment he was struggling to put one foot in front of the other, and the next he was wrapped in blankets at the foot of a tree with a self heating can of coffee in his hand.
Coincidentally, all his aches and pains started crying for attention, the cuts and burns bringing unwilling tears to his eyes. Slowly, he managed to get his head around the throbbing ache that was his entire body, allowing it to become manageable enough for him to concentrate on his surroundings.
"Are you sure he's going to be fit enough?" That had to be Noah, worry clear in his voice. Nice.
"I'm sure," Cobb replied, calm and reassuring as usual. "He's in pain, but it's superficial. All he needs to do is get us inside the mountain and get the target out. Sharford and Alwin can baby-sit."
"Like Collier did?" Noah snapped back. "And look what happened to her!"
"She was a traitor," Cobb snapped. "I don't agree with Alwin's decision to kill her, but she should never have let herself be bought like that."
"And you haven't?" Noah said softly.
"No," Cobb replied sharply. "Listen, I don't agree with Horatio's methods, and to be honest, if Sharford hadn't got the access codes I'd have given you the DP way back. But I've seen some of Horatio's results. And he gets them."
"I know," Noah nodded. "It's just… we have to get that thing."
"I know," Cobb replied. "And if he's anything like as determined as his old man, your boy will do it."
"Oh, he always does his best, and more." Noah laughed softly. "But using his special skills takes a hell of a lot out of him. At least, that's what the Kane files say. And I'm frightened that he'll kill himself trying, or worse, won't be able to help us get the target out at all."
Heart lurching, Jesse's choked on his coffee. "Gotta love those priorities, dad!" he spluttered, and the two men jumped.
"Thought you'd dozed off," Cobb smiled, while Noah muttered, "You weren't supposed to hear that."
"Obviously," Jesse's mind was a whirl and he didn't know what to think, so he focused on the one thing he was certain about. "So, wanna get this thing," He waved towards the back of his head, "out of me, so I can do the job you brought me here for?"
"Rest up," Cobb said, moving over to do a quick visual inspection. "Alwin has the machine that'll remove it and they'll be back shortly. They're just scouting round. The area we want is just ahead, okay? Then we can get you fixed up and home."
It was not without some guilt that Jesse forced himself to relax as he realized that he trusted Cobb more than he'd ever trust his own father.
*****
"Ack!"
Emma's cry had all heads spinning towards her.
"What's up?" Shalimar was already out of her seat and by Emma's side as the younger woman blinked her huge eyes several times before being able to speak. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yes, sure I'm fine," Emma smiled. "I just… it was unexpected, that's all."
"What was?" asked Brennan from the pilot's seat.
"It was Jesse, and it was the same feeling I get when one of you gets freed from a sub-dermal governor. Pain and then freedom."
"Where is he? What's happening? Can you still feel him?" Shalimar's knuckles turned white as she gripped the arm of Emma's seat.
"No," replied the psionic, frowning. "I don't know, I can't feel him anymore, and it was pretty distant. It was just… sudden. That's all."
"Emma. Adam's voice was low and calming. "Do you think you could get some feel for distance or direction? If you concentrate?"
Emma shook her head. "No. No, I'm sorry." Her frown deepened. "There's nothing there. Nothing at all."
Brennan's forehead creased in frown. "So, he must be pretty close if you can feel him now, but didn't feel a governor go in."
Hemming and hawing for a moment, Emma eventually replied, "Not necessarily. Right now I'm pretty opened up which I wasn't before. Add to that the possibility of psionic shielding of some description. I mean, if the girl who took you out was with him, she could have kept him shielded if her power allowed it."
Wincing at the reminder of his distraction, Brennan returned his concentration to piloting the Double Helix.
*****
Saturated, dripping and shivering painfully, Jesse was surrounded by the other four men as they huddled in the narrow crevasse in the mountainside. Sharford had the weakest point in the mountain wall marked out on his Palm Pilot and Jesse was studying it.
"Sure there's no energy barriers in there?" he asked through chattering teeth. "No surprises? Because I'm not kidding when I say that being encased in rock is not a good way to die." He shuddered, but was unsure whether that was more to do with the idea of being entombed than being cold, wet and in pain.
"Nothing but rock," Sharford replied in his deep monotone, and tapped the Pilot. "A geological breakdown, if you need it."
Jesse was impressed to see a complete survey, far more information than he ever usually got. He found himself weighing up the different densities of the materials, the rock types and minerals, something he'd never really considered beyond the obvious.
A couple of feet of porous rock, then around fifteen feet of much denser materials with intermittent thin steel supports on the other side. He realized that all eyes were on him, and tried to weight up which method would be best. Phase the five of them, or phase a tunnel through the mountain. All four would need to be in contact with him if he phased them, and should one lose contact for even a nanosecond… Jesse shuddered. Better to phase a tunnel. It would take more out of him, but he was reasonably confident he could do it. After all, he'd phased the entire Double Helix and its passengers once, hadn't he? And rock was so much more familiar to him than all that metal and plastic and - shuddering again - energy.
"Keep together and keep in contact," he said. Contact was unnecessary, really, but it would keep them in a smaller group and make his job easier.
Leaning against the wall he took a deep breath, wincing as sore ribs protested, then tried again, taking several deep breaths, hyperventilating to get more oxygen into his blood stream before exhaling as hard as he could.
His fingers tingling as his hand and then the wall before him phased away. He walked forward, the molecules of the solid wall pulling apart, separating before him, allowing him passage, recognizing one of their own, yet needing his energy to make the miracle occur. He was aware of the others as a warm pillar of flesh behind him, and fixed his senses on the one at the back so he could keep an intangible area that encompassed them all.
His chest ached with more than just cuts and bruises as his lungs instinctively fought for air, yet it seemed that the rock was pushing him along, helping him, molecules tugging at him, easing his transit, something he never got from artificial materials.
This part always amazed him. It was ironic in a way that his greatest fear was being buried alive, yet his best power involved walking through suffocating walls. But, while his confidence in his own powers was somewhat less than it should be, once he actually phased into anything that nature had built, it was like he was walking amongst sentient beings who wanted to help him, made him feel safe, took what was needed from him to try and help him get through before he had to take breath and die.
As opposed to man made materials that seemed to resent his presence and abilities, that took what they could from him as payment for passage. Or worse, artificial energy of any description that punished him for even daring to contemplate being a part of their world.
For once, though, Jesse thought he may have been a touch overconfident as his starving lungs kicked in a burst of adrenaline that surged up his gut and attempted to force him into panic. There didn't seem to be any end to the rock, and he had no idea how far they had yet to go.
He gritted his teeth in determination, pushing the adrenaline-induced panic away, until he felt a resistance. The familiar resistance of steel that wanted payment, and he knew they were there. Letting the others out ahead, he stepped through, let go and inhaled glorious air, enjoying a brief moment of freedom and silence, where there were no aches and pains, no chaos of thought or emotion, a moment of just being.
But a sudden clattering and a hail of tiny missiles smacking through the air had Jesse ducking and falling to the floor with a sharp cry as rubber knees gave out, the jarring force of hitting the floor re-awakening angry, abused muscles and nerve endings.
The other four - no three, Noah was cowering behind some crates - were moving, jumping and diving, kicking and punching, using their guns as batons as much as fire-weapons, and Jesse thought that he should be helping out. With a groan he pushed himself to his feet, scanning the soldiers' moves, trying to see where he might be needed.
He was slower than he would have liked, but at least massing came easier to him than phasing, which meant that with some smart pit stops, he was pretty much invulnerable throughout. The three soldiers simply accepted him as a shield and used him as much as he could be there for them.
Needing a breath, Jesse waited for Alwin to spring away from behind him then spun behind some crates for a breath.
"Up and around so soon?" came a horribly familiar voice that sent shivers up and down Jesse's spine.
He turned around slowly to find a man sprawled by the wall, half hidden by a fallen cabinet. Jesse didn't need to look closely to see that the man only had minutes left to live – it was obvious from the amount of blood pooling around and the pallor of the his face, the bluing lips.
The man spoke again, his breathing rapid and harsh around the words. "I am pleased that my men did not hurt you so bad."
"Ya think?" Jesse snapped. "You should try being in my skin and saying that.."
The man, Captain de Marguilera, did not look nearly as vicious as Jesse had imagined. In fact, he looked like someone's genial old granddad, with a kindly face and laughter lines deep around his eyes. Jesse wanted to shout and rant at him, beat him up, do something, but the sad, old man dying on the floor gave him no immediate recourse.
The Captain made a gurgling attempt at a chuckle. "No, Mr Kilmartin, it was not so bad, trust me. I could not let them torture someone so much like my own son. But, one thing, please."
"I'm not – "
"Please!" the Captain arched, his face contorted in agony. "Please," he gasped as he relaxed again. "You do not want my country to have this weapon, I understand. It could mean freedom for my people, but you are not of my people. But I beg of you, please do not let your people have it either. If you cannot let us have a chance at freedom, then please, don't destroy any chance we may ever have."
Words of anger on Jesse's lips died as the last breath left the Captain's body, and a white hot flash of anger surged through him. It passed in a second, and all he could think was that not even his enemies could resist dumping on him.
A hand grabbed his arm and spun him towards what looked to be roughly similar to the Double Helix, but with warts on its red gold skin, and five times the size. Noah was inside and gesturing wildly for them to get in, and Jesse supposed that his father had been spending the battle figuring out how to open the door.
He let himself be ushered by Cobb into the machine with Sharford and Alwin pulling up the rear, Alwin in full feral mode in his attempts to defend Sharford who didn't really seem to need it.
Low, barely-there humming indicated the engines were online as they slid into fluid seats that seemed to mould their contours to each individual's shape. The door silently slid shut, the bullets and commotion outside ceasing to exist as the soundproof machine started to move. The only windows were those at the front, and Jesse could see that they were moving forward on a track as Noah gave his seat up to Sharford.
"Jesse," Noah grabbed his attention, "we need you to phase this, through that." He pointed outside, and Jesse could see that the big metal doors through which the track lead remained steadfastly shut.
He'd done this already with the Helix, but that had been smaller. And to a certain extent, with the amount of work he'd done on it, more of a known quantity. But the Helix had taken a hell of a lot out of him, at a time when he'd had a damn sight more to give.
But they were looking at him again, and that door was looming.
Like before, in the end, there was no choice.
And the door was almost upon them. Only one shot at this.
Like before, find some central support, hyperventilate, gather oxygen, exhale completely, concentrate on separating own molecules, spreading the phase out, feeling the edges of the craft, feeling the flesh pillars all encompassed, fighting with compound metals and plastics that wouldn't willingly separate without leaching his failing energy levels, resisting the biting attacks of electricity and fission that fought against him.
Passing through solid, unforgiving steel that, although untouched by Jesse, still registered its displeasure by putting extra drag on the passing craft, exacting its own price.
A slow lurch and they were free, Jesse letting go with gulps of air and a bone deep exhaustion that left him kneeling, arms about his middle, and his forehead resting on the floor as he tried to pull together wits scattered by pain, fatigue and emotional stress.
"We're out!" Noah's voice whooping victory. "Now, give me my payment!"
"Here," Cobb's voice accompanied by rummaging. "Alwin has the codes."
"Sure," Alwin's monotone. "Don't use it all at once." A couple beeps, a small hiss and a sigh from Noah.
Jesse turned his tired head a little to see Noah brandishing a capped syringe from a small security box.
"Don't use it at all just yet," Cobb grabbed Noah's wrist.
"I know, I know," Noah pulled his arm away. "I know what this stuff does, how valuable it is. I'm not going to waste it."
Noah put the syringe away back in the box, but kept hold of it, stroking it like he would the Holy Grail.
Yeah, dad, Jesse thought, I'm dying over here. Should have known, I guess, but nothing anyone does surprises me any more. Nothing.
"Think I'll retire after this one," remarked Alwin.
"Do we know where it's going?" asked Cobb, a little worriedly.
"Do we care?" replied Alwin. "Horatio's gonna make millions. Hell, we're gonna make millions just from our measly cuts."
"Ah, don't worry about it," Sharford said. "With your cut you can go do good in Africa or Korea or wherever it was you wanted to go."
"I know," said Cobb a little bitterly. "Doesn't make it any easier to swallow though. I mean, what if terrorists get their hands on this? We could be condemning our own people."
Alwin chuckled. "Right, like Horatio doesn't have most of them in his back pocket. In any case, he isn't going to sell the thing to anyone who's gonna aim it right back at him. He's ambitious, man. Money and the power he has isn't enough. He wants to be the man in charge, and having some whacko use one of his toys against him just isn't on the agenda."
"But someone's going to suffer," Cobb said.
"Don't think about it," Sharford advised flatly. "I don't."
"You could have opted out," said Noah. "You didn't have to do this."
"No, he couldn't," Alwin immediately contradicted. "It's do or die, literally, for all of us. Do, is really, really good. Die is, well, terminal. And once Horatio sets his sights on you, then do or die are the only options."
So, thought Jesse, when it comes down to it, it seems that Captain La Marguilera was right, although perhaps for the wrong reasons.
No one should have this craft, whatever it may do. It didn't matter what its capabilities were, why it was so special, it belonged to this country, wherever this country was. And if this country couldn't have it, then no one should, least of all a profiteer or his customer.
Standing up was a monumental effort for Jesse, with all his limbs like lead weights with marshmallow muscles. Looking out the front as he grabbed a strut for support, he could see that they were still moving along a track to the foot of a mountain. There was what seemed to be a launch pad of some description directly ahead, and men were still running around outside firing at them - although as they approached the launch pad they started backing off, probably scared of getting caught in whatever passed as the craft's thrusters.
It seemed he wasn't noticed as he slid painfully into one of the seats and began trawling through the terminal there. Fortunately most of what he needed to look at was in English, and the languages of mathematics and programming. There was no convenient self-destruct mechanism, or if there was he couldn't find it. However, the engines were unique, and perhaps that was a part of what made the craft so special. A chemical engine, but two of the chemicals used should never be allowed to meet in the normal design of things.
Jesse grinned to himself as he saw exactly how to make those two chemicals meet. It was like a logic problem, something at which he excelled. Without moving from his seat, he could cause an overload to a circuit there, creating a fire that would melt that junction over there, because the chemical contained in plastic was corrosive to metal, etcetera, etcetera…
"Better belt up… Hey, what are you doing!" Alwin called out, making a move to get out of his seat.
"Oh, he just likes playing with computers," Noah said absently, clutching his case.
"There's no time, get back in your seat," Sharford ordered. "Shit! There's a breach in one of the fuel lines!" Suddenly alarms tore through the cabin. "We're on fire!"
"More than that," smiled Jesse. "Guess we should get out of here before it explodes."
"What did you do?" Alwin's eyes flashed gold as he tore his way out of his seat.
"Not now!" Sharford caught a hold of Alwin. "We can kill the freak later. Let's just get out of here, first." He treated Jesse to a white hot glare before pulling the growling feral with him.
Jesse pulled himself to his feet, wincing in pain and exhaustion, grateful when Cobb and Noah supported him out. Once on the ground they let Jesse move under his own steam, hanging back for him, yet eager to be outside the range of any detonation that might occur.
The explosion when it came was sudden, lifting Jesse off his feet and hurling him into the surrounding fence, trees, sky…
Maybe he phased or massed, but he was running on instinct only as in the space of a split second, with no time to think, he was flying, fire flaming and roaring, overtaking, dragging along screaming clawed metal. Wood ripped to stake-sized splinters flew alongside whiplash wires and long arcs of blood. Chaotic, shattering noise became his whole world, decorated with black speckled red and yellow streaked green-hued sky, distorted faces screaming denial, Noah flying rag-doll high, and parts of Cobb shooting randomly past. Brief shocking glimpse of Sharford impaled high in a struggling tree, Alwin's legs kicking as the rest of him sheared away to nothing by razor sharp shrapnel. Disbelief and horror at the destruction caused by the chemical nightmare he'd brought to life…
… and then it was over.
Shocking silence, lazy spinning, ground and darkness arriving with a sharp, wet thud.
*****
Cont'd.