This is the last big chapter for a while. I had already written the story and was just splitting it up into chapters which was why there was pretty much one every day. Now I have run out of story to split up into chapters so could take a little while longer. Plus I'm going back to school tomorrow so won't be able to do some every day. Hope you enjoy this chapter and please review. Thank you to all my faithful reviewers: Charming Kitty Cat, Evilbon32, Jouliana, petitecat, wizard13. I know I've missed some people out but hey, this is not an Oscar acceptance speech. To anybody else who has read this story, please review. And if anybody knows when Mutant X is coming back on to British TV please let me know. Have a nice day.
Shalimar saw all of them come through the doors. She wanted to get up, go and tell them that she was okay. They all looked so worried. But what if it was one of Gabriel's tricks? What if they weren't real and he ended up beating her that way? What if they were real and he got really pissed off and decided to blast them all to kingdom come? She couldn't risk it. Plus she didn't know if her legs even had the strength to support her body. She'd probably just fall over. She would have laughed at the thought but laughing was tiring.
Brennan knelt in front of her, then Adam and then they cleared out of the way to make room for Emma. It all passed as if it was a dream. Everything was really slow and she couldn't hear anything they were saying to her clearly. But she could see the worry in their eyes; it hurt that she couldn't do anything to ease that.
Emma was getting scared now. Shalimar was crying less and less. She had only seen one tear in the last half a minute. The buildings were all but gone and the rain had nearly stopped, heck the clouds were disappearing and with nothing above them this was a bad sign.
Gabriel had been trying to decide what his best course of action was. Should he fade into the background or try and push his plan into action a little faster, try and counteract the presence of Shalimar's friends. He had to try anything to make this work and despite the loss of his powers he wasn't scared of Mutant X, just Shalimar. The smirk wavered.
Brennan wasn't sure what Emma was looking for. He knew she was pretty much an expert in this field but that didn't help him at that exact point. Shalimar still looked so lifeless. There wasn't even fear in her eyes…nothing. That was what scared him the most. What if Shalimar did get back but was a complete vegetable? What if they managed to get her out of this place and then when she was back in the real world she was still completely unresponsive. Or what if she changed? What if this whole not caring thing, which was going on in here carried on outside and she turned into the female version of Gabriel? Not quite the same amount of power since she would lose all of his new mutant abilities if she got out but what if she turned into some kind of sociopath who wanted to destroy the world that could cause her so much pain. And then Mutant X would have to fight her. He couldn't handle that.
Adam could sense Gabriel's presence. He knew he was laughing at them, trying to revive Shalimar. But that had always been his last mistake. When he had killed his parents he believed himself to be all-powerful, he believed he couldn't be taken down by anyone. And then Genomex, more specifically Adam had placed a sub-dermal governor in the back of his neck and stuck him in a pod. Every time Gabriel had gone up against Mutant X his pride and arrogance had been his downfall. Adam hoped this time would be no different.
Yet again Jesse was feeling useless. He always did when they went to fight the Strand or the GSA or Gabriel when he was alive. Brennan and Shalimar got all the credit for kicking ass; even Emma's new power helped out more than his. He knew they didn't mean to make him feel this way, definitely now. Shalimar needed all the help she could get and he was happy that Emma could do that. But it didn't stop him from feeling useless. He wanted to pummel Gabriel into the ground. Knowing it wouldn't help Shalimar didn't matter; it would make him feel better.
'Jesse,' yelled Emma.
He had Gabriel rammed against the brickwork of one of the few remaining skyscrapers. She knew Jesse felt like crap about the whole thing with Gabriel. He had haunted Shalimar for weeks and Jesse had felt inadequate to help with that. What he didn't seem to realise was that Shalimar was like his sister. She valued him so much, she loved him in a way she could never love anyone else, even Brennan…especially Brennan thought Emma with a slight smile coming to her lips.
Adam and Brennan ran over to Jesse trying to pull him off Gabriel. They knew exactly how he felt but this was not going to help Shalimar in anyway. She was the only one who could get rid of Gabriel; she had to be the one to kick his ass.
Emma was so busy watching the events unfold in front of her (she could have stopped it but there was this whole big chunk of her that wanted Jesse to ram Gabriel's head through the wall) that nobody noticed Shalimar standing up. The rain hadn't become any stronger but she was standing.
By this time Brennan had managed to pull Jesse off Gabriel. It had been a good plan; he was kinda disappointed that he hadn't thought of it himself. But Adam and Emma were right, always the voices of reason, it wouldn't do any good. He looked quickly back over his shoulder just to check on Shal, but she wasn't there, atleast not where she had been before. Shalimar was walking down what had presumably been a street. He didn't know where she was going but he knew she couldn't leave. He let go of Jesse and ran after her.