'Hey Adam, you are not allowed to do that anymore!' declared Brennan.
'Not allowed to do what anymore?' answered Adam innocently.
'Give us twelve holographic new mutants to fight without warning!'
'Oh, that,' Adam replied with a grin.
Shalimar hopped up onto the bio bed in the middle of the lab next to Brennan.
'I thought it was kinda fun,' she said with a sparkle in her eyes.
Brennan looked at her, eyebrows raised. He knew she was teasing but still, she had managed to take down seven of them. She was definitely in control of her evolved mutant abilities. He just wished he could say the same thing about his.
Jesse and Emma walked into the room playing either/or.
'That's not fair,' whined Emma.
'Whats not fair about the question? It cannot possibly be that hard, just answer it.'
'Ok, I would have to go with Ben Affleck.'
The others looked at them with puzzled looks on all their faces.
As if to explain it all Emma looked at Shalimar and simply said 'Ben Affleck or Matt Damon.'
'Matt Damon,' Shalimar said with a grin. Shalimar seemed to get it even if no one else in the room understood.
Emma took a seat as Adam called up some images to the computer monitor. They showed CCTV footage from what looked like Genomex. They were dated a couple of days ago.
'You all know that things have been a little quiet on the new mutant front over the past couple of weeks, ever since Gabriel died.
'No kidding,' piped in Shalimar. 'I'm getting restless, I need some ass to kick that isn't completely virtual!'
'Well Eckhart got let out of stasis the other day as you can see from this camera footage.' The team could all see Eckhart looking drained, he was weak and didn't seem to be able to master the use of his legs, not surprising really since he had been stuck in a pod for months.
'Obviously he's still recovering but should be back hard at work making our lives hell within the space of a week,' continued Adam.
'Something to look forward to,' said Brennan. Smiling slightly Adam carried on:
'But for now I want you all to take a break. There are no new cases to deal with, Eckhart's gonna take some time so there's no point in wasting your energy.'
Everyone looked relieved at this. They had been exhausted by the whole Gabriel thing, especially Shalimar. He was finally out of her head so she wanted to take the time to catch up on being alone with herself, getting back in control of her own head. She could finally relax. She had a tonne of books she wanted to get through plus she hadn't had the opportunity to go walking in a long time. Shalimar's feral mutation meant that she didn't feel comfortable being away from nature for too long.
As soon as they had all dispersed Shalimar went straight to her room. She changed into a pair of worn jeans and tied a jacket around her waist. She dug around in her closet for her hiking boots but couldn't locate them. She was sure they had to be there somewhere.