-7 Months
It was a slightly somber Proxy Blue on the telecast. "Word has it that the AV's have destroyed the Freedom Fighters' headquarters, which certainly explains the rise in AV activity. It really doesn't matter what you think of the Freedom Fighters, the one thing I think we're all now discovering is that they kept the AV's in check. There's a rumor that the Freedom Fighters are regrouping and I for one hope that's true, because the human forces are woefully inadequate. They only seem capable of capturing mutants that don't want to fight.
"Some of you may have noticed an absence of Blueness the last couple of weeks. There are innocent people who are being arrested for treason and conspiracy, accused of conspiring to broadcast free speech. In other words, each one of those individuals is accused of being me. Well, they're not. The crime is a farce and I'm still here, back on the air. So all you newshounds out there, get those reports out of the pound and into my kennel."
*****
Emma found herself running not only her own teams, but also Shalimar's. With most of the feral's command core missing in action, her people had made their way to join Emma, or otherwise contacted her, and quite frankly she was overwhelmed.
She'd never realized how much of an impact they'd made until she saw the underground press begging the Freedom Fighters to regroup and come back, pledging support. These were journals published by humans and mutants alike, and Emma wasn't sure she liked what the Freedom Fighters had become.
They'd never intended to become an army.
All they'd wanted was to help give mutants a chance. And now the official views held the humans as valiantly fighting the mutant menace, while the underground pictured the humans oppressing the mutant victims. It might have started off with someone propagating the former and be rapidly heading towards the latter, but right now things were in between.
With messages coming in from Adam via Jesse expressing sorrow at the loss of Shalimar and hope that she was still alive somewhere, Adam was also telling Emma to sit tight. But she couldn't just do nothing, so she had Shalimar's teams continue as they were, but with an altered brief where discretion was paramount. They needed to prevent and protect, yet try not to give humans cause to hate them more.
*****
Brennan let himself into the basement flat of the run-down building that was apparently a part of the Kilmartin empire, glad for a day to rest and just chill for a while. He hadn't told Jesse he was coming, or that he intended to drag him out for the day, knowing full well that if he did the cyber geek would just plug himself into his VR work from which Brennan wouldn't dare tear him loose.
He called out that he was in and put some supplies in the fridge, pleased to note that this time hermit boy had actually used most of his last stock up. As he opened a beer and wandered into the main room, he was pleasantly surprised to find Jesse talking to Adam over the web-link.
"You should come over and visit," Jesse was saying. "It'd be good to share the goss over a beer."
"I'll be sure to take you up on that." Adam smiled. "Meantime, I'm going places here, and I'm hoping that I'll have enough influential people onside in a few weeks that we can get Emma's people meeting with them."
"That's great news!" Jesse paused before asking tensely, "I don't suppose you've heard anything on Shal?"
"You're the gossip bureau!" Adam snapped suddenly, before rubbing tired eyes. "I'm sorry."
"I know," Jesse's face was hard, muscles clenching, "and don't forget, without contributions the gossip bureau doesn't exist - and that includes yours."
"I said, I'm sorry!" Adam gritted his teeth. "I haven't heard anything, but – Damn! Listen, I have to go. Ermintrude has issued a summons." He rolled his eyes, and Jesse smiled. Peace between them. "Say hi to Brennan for me," he finished up and the screen went blank.
There was something not right there, and Brennan felt the renewed need to keep his cards close to his chest when it came to Adam, one reason why he hadn't announced his presence. Just a gut feeling that was maybe just paranoia, but he'd learned to trust his self-preservation instincts.
Jesse closed off the connection and spun his seat around. He was virtually cocooned in monitors, servers and wiring, and Brennan really didn't want to think about the fire hazard. At least with Jesse's talents, it wasn't so big a worry that he'd be caught out, but still... "Didn't know you were coming today."
"I know," Brennan threw Jesse's jacket at him. "Grab your shoes and sunglasses, and let's get out in the sun."
"It's raining," Jesse objected. "How can I get sun?"
"It's more sun than you see right now. White is so not your color."
Jesse snorted and did as Brennan bade. "You don't look so shit hot yourself," he remarked. And Brennan knew that the younger man wasn't wholly kidding. He'd lost weight, was far too tired and couldn't remember the last time he'd changed his clothes. "Maybe it's your turn to start looking after me."
As Jesse winced at the dull gray light and muttered about its brightness as he put his wrap around sunglasses on. "I didn't ask you to nanny me, and I'm sure as hell not nanny-ing you."
"Jeez, you're getting crotchety in your old age," Brennan sniggered. "All that power and money at your disposal and you look like a bag lady."
Looking him up and down with an incredulous eye, Jesse retorted, "Pot, kettle and black mean anything to you?"
Brennan sniffed. "Nah." After a short silence as they walked to nowhere in particular, he asked. "Do you think we'll see an end to all this?"
Jesse hesitated slightly. "Do you want an honest answer?" Brennan hesitated in turn, before nodding.
"If we can keep going, the war will burn itself out. The trick is, not to let the fighting stop. Because even if Adam and Emma get to the peace table, while there are those in power who don't want mutants to have any rights then their work will fail. We have to take those people out of the equation or let the whole thing come to a natural conclusion."
Shocked, Brennan looked at his friend again. "And you were supposed to be the idealist."
Jesse laughed, and it wasn't a pleasant sound. "Lost that months ago. And you know what really scares me? There's a big part of me, a part I have to fight every day, that doesn't want it to end at all. Because I'm really doing something effective. In my own right. I can decide other people's destinies, who flourishes and falls, who lives and dies." He paused and stopped to look at Brennan, his face unreadable behind the sunglasses. "You run the Underground Railway, you must have some idea what I'm talking about."
Brennan had no idea what the younger man meant, only knowing that it wasn't good, that he was losing the person he used to know. But if he was realistic, he was changing too. "No, I don't understand, but see, my life has always been about fighting and taking, living for the thrill of it all, and so long as I can do I'll always have that. Your life has always been about fighting for control. Maybe now that you have it, and then some, it's a bitch to deal with."
"Yeah," said Jesse, continuing their walk. "For both of us."
They didn't know what to say to each other any more, and Brennan left earlier than he'd intended to.
*****
Shalimar held Vernon in her lap while one of the others bound his gashed leg. They were in a prison where lethal fights were the norm, with over a hundred mutants squashed into one large room, and overlooked by open grilles through which guards watched over and taunted them. She had no clue where they were, only that they'd been taken by air for a few hours and that it was hot and humid here, with a staple diet of rice.
There was only one exit; one door, followed by a short corridor with gun slits in the walls, and then another door, ensuring that no ambush or escape was possible that way. People had tried and been shot down, shocking everyone with the AV's willingness to kill their own to keep the prisoners in line. They all had sub-dermal governors, the original kind, and Shalimar had to wonder where they all came from. No way that the AV's just had them lying around.
With Vernon and Ollie with her, a slightly bemusing indication that some of the other 'neutralized mutants' were likely to be humans, she felt a secure in her own space. But the occupants of this pit were half starved and in pain - not ones that could be organized into a revolt, even if there were a way to stage one.
She could only bide her time and hope that one day she'd have fresh air and daylight once again.
*****
Mason Eckhart looked at his monitor in disbelief. LexMor technicians had actually managed to not only discover, but also decrypt and break open files that had been sealed by his best cyberpaths.
He could only pray that Morrisen's people were genetically clueless and didn't understand the contents of those files.
*****