I would like to remind people that I know what I'm doing, and that everything *will* be explained eventually, no matter how weird things get. Trust me! *smirk*
A/N 1: Ideas for fic and character development, questions, plotbunnies, suggestions, flames, character pictures, ficlets, corrections, additions, comments, and everything in between can be mailed to hack_heaven@usa.net.
A/N 2: DaHippo: *grins* Don't worry, everything will work out in the end. I have plans for Zach and Deirdre, whether Ben likes it or not.
T'Girl: Actually, if you count the number of words, rather than just look at the length of the chapters, you'll find that those three short chapters were considerably more than I usually post in one week. 'Sides, I write only as much as I need in order to get the point across - no need to fill up the chapters with needless babble just to make them seem longer. And yes, I do have plans for young Zachary...*evil smirk* (But you're more than welcome to pair them up in an AU fic *hint* ;)
Archangel: Well, I'd promised myself that there would be no excessive violence, but my new dark-fic muse convinced me to re-think that *eyes Vamp nervously*
Maxwell Dark: You can't really blame Ryan, can you? All he knows about Zach is that a) he works for Blade, and b) he looks homicidal. No wonder he's worried about Deirdre ^^
Italics indicates thoughts/telepathy
* * *
Chapter Fifty-Nine: Checkmate
* * *
Suzuka followed Kyle, Blade, and Jordane silently, occasionally glaring angrily at Blade. She didn't like the situation one bit, and Kyle's behavior didn't make things any better. Suzuka turned her head slightly and sent her teammate a cold glare before looking away again. How could Kyle even have agreed to this? He knew what Blade could do - and what he already had done. How could he follow someone like that?!
Kyle noticed the glare Suzuka directed at him, and sent the girl a worried look, but Suzuka merely looked away.
I'm not a traitor, Suzuka. Don't treat me as one, Kyle whispered silently, but it was too late to do anything. The damage had already been done, and Kyle knew that it could take a long time before Suzuka would be willing to forgive him for this.
But it wasn't like they'd had a choice, was it? This was a matter of survival, not team loyalties. Dying here would accomplish nothing. He'd made his decision for his own sake as well as Suzuka's, and that had to count for something, didn't it?
Caught up in his thoughts as he was, Kyle didn't notice Nike's presence until she all but materialized in the hallway in front of them, and too late did his mind react to the startling turn of events.
"You!" Suzuka spat out, and had already taken a step towards Nike by the time Kyle's mind had finally caught up with things.
Kyle reached out and tried to stop her, but she tore herself loose of his grasp and attacked Nike with a ferocity that surprised even Kyle.
Nike, though, merely deflected the attack before taking a step back to watch her opponent.
"Hello, Twilight." The words were accompanied by a faint, confident smile, and Suzuka's eyes narrowed angrily.
"Nike," she replied, fury seething just beneath the surface.
Kyle tore his attention away from the fight for a moment and took a look at the surroundings instead. Even through the chaos, the other mutants in the hallway seemed to understand that this was something they shouldn't get involved in, and stayed clear of the small group. Kyle turned his attention to Blade and Melee and found that like he himself, they had chosen to watch from the sidelines, accepting that this was between Nike and Suzuka alone.
Suzuka charged again, and once again Nike deflected the attack, this time with almost mocking ease. It became obvious to Kyle that Nike was playing with her, trying to get her to make a mistake, but Suzuka was too furious to think rationally.
The two fighters slowly circled each other as Suzuka prepared to attack a third time, but this time Kyle was determined not to let things go any further. Before Suzuka could react, Kyle had stepped between the two, efficiently ruining Suzuka's attack.
"Kyle, damnit! Get out of my way!" Suzuka growled and tried to get around Kyle, but to no avail as the other refused to let her get any closer to Nike.
Kyle was well aware that turning his back to Nike like this could easily turn out to be a bad idea, but his instincts told him that Nike had enough common sense to realize that getting into a fight now wouldn't help them.
"We don't have time for this, Suzuka," Kyle explained quietly. "You can get even later, but right now we have to get out of here."
Suzuka glared at him and tried to get around him again, but Kyle stopped her. "Suzuka, listen to me - we don't have the time for this! If you get into a fight with Nike, you could get us all killed, understand?" The words were said in a harsher tone than he'd intended, but it had the desired effect as Suzuka glared at him, but stopped her attempt to get to Nike.
The girl turned around and took a few steps away, but before Kyle could relax, he felt Nike move behind him, followed by a small chill at her sudden closeness.
"I could have killed you," she noted, and as Kyle turned around, he found her watching him almost curiously.
"I know," he replied.
Nike nodded slowly, and for a moment, a faint hint of respect could be seen in her eyes. Then the moment passed, and Nike walked away from Kyle, towards her two teammates.
"I assume you're the one behind this chaos?" Blade noted, seemingly not the least bit surprised by Laetitia's appearance. The girl nodded, and Blade smirked. "Good job."
Laetitia merely smiled confidently. "I know."
She tossed the key to the collars to Blade, along with one of the two guns. The older mutant quickly disposed of his own collar, then started to work on Jordane's.
"The others are here, too," Laetitia said. "I met Hal and Pheonix on the way. They seemed to be unharmed."
A faint click, and the lock on Jordane's collar opened as well.
"Good," Blade replied, and Laetitia wasn't sure if he was referring to her encounter or the collar. "They should be able to get out of here on their own." He watched the key to the collars for a moment, then sighed almost inaudibly and tossed it to Kyle, who caught it with a surprised look. "Hurry up. We don't have all day," Blade snapped.
The man didn't offer any explanation to his unexpected decision, and Kyle didn't ask, but opened his own and Suzuka's collars with a few, swift movements instead. He felt surge through his body as his powers finally returned, and he massaged his neck where the collar had rested, just to make sure that it really was gone.
"I checked the map over this place - there's a back entrance," Laetitia explained to her two teammates. "If we leave that way, we will be a lot less likely to run into any trouble."
"Then let's go," Blade ordered, but was stopped as Laetitia put a hand on his arm.
"What about them?" she said in a low voice, motioning towards Kyle and Suzuka. She had been surprised to see Blade actually help Sanderson, but had figured that there had been some reasonably good explanation. This, though...
Blade arched an eyebrow. "They're coming with us, Nike. You can get even with them later, but right now the most important thing is getting out of here."
"They'll slow us down," Laetitia replied, not caring if the two people in question would hear her.
"Slow you down?!" Suzuka repeated angrily. "We're not-"
"They could prove useful," Blade replied, cutting through Suzuka's angry protests. "This is *my* decision, Nike. I don't care if you like it - you're paid to follow orders, and that is what I expect you to do."
A hint of anger appeared in Laetitia's eyes at his careless dismissal of her argument, but she suppressed her reaction, and merely nodded in reply. "All right."
"Good." Blade turned to look at Kyle and Suzuka, and raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Any objections?"
Kyle took a tight grip on Suzuka's arm before she could say anything, and the girl glared at him, but thankfully remained silent. "No," Kyle replied. "No objections from us."
Blade's words had sounded almost civilized, but Kyle seriously doubted that the other would have cared much for their opinion on things. It wasn't like they had a choice, anyway - right now Nike seemed to be the one with the most knowledge of the place, and her loyalty belonged to Blade. And if Kyle and Suzuka wanted to survive, it might be a good idea to follow the trio for the time being.
Blade didn't reply with words but merely nodded, and the strange, little group began their trip through the maze of hallways and cells.
* * *
It quickly turned out that following Laetitia's suggestion had been a good idea. The hallways in that particular part of the prison were all but deserted, the only exception being a few, lonely guards who had stayed behind. All the time it was clear what they had avoided, though - a constant, low sound of yelling, screaming, and fighting, sometimes accompanied by a loud rumble or roar as weapons and mutant powers clashed. The sound had been dulled by the thick walls, but its presence was impossible to ignore, and none of the four mutants could honestly say that they were unaffected by the constant reminder of their situation.
They followed Laetitia in silence, none of them willing to start talking. The sound of fighting, combined with the already tense atmosphere between the five, made it feel almost wrong to say something - not to mention the fact that talking might distract them and make it easier for any enemies to sneak up on them. It was a risk they couldn't take, and so the tense silence continued.
Laetitia motioned down a slighter wider hallway, and as the group turned around a corner, they finally saw the welcome sight of a large door that led outside. They hurried up a bit, a sense of urgency in their movements. They all knew that the longer they stayed in this place, the greater the risk of discovery, and none of them wanted to fail now that they had gotten this far.
The door opened, and the group found themselves engulfed by the searing afternoon heat. Out in the horizon, the sun was slowly setting, and in a couple of hours the temperature would thankfully be bearable once again.
According to the map Laetitia had studied, the open place they now found themselves in was located in a corner of the complex, next to two of the many hangers in the area. By now they were relatively far away from the main entrance and the other prisoners, and hopefully most of the soldiers would have left the less exposed parts of the complex.
Blade let his eyes survey the area and the two hangars in front of them. One was significantly smaller than the other, and partially build into the larger one. It didn't seem to be used nearly as often as its larger neighbor, and that alone was enough to suggest that they wouldn't find anything useful in there. No...they would check out the larger hangar first, Blade decided. They would have to move fast, and checking out both buildings would slow them down. Sure, there didn't seem to be anything suspicious in the area, but Blade couldn't help the nagging feeling that something was wrong.
"Let's check the larger one first," Blade decided, and nodded towards the large building in front of them. "We need to find something to escape in."
"What about the second hanger?" Laetitia asked.
"There's a bigger chance of finding a vehicle in the other one," Blade explained. "Getting separated now is a bad idea, Nike. It would only slow us down, and we need to move fast."
"I know what I'm doing, Blade," Laetitia replied. "And I can handle myself, you know that."
Blade watched her for a moment, then nodded slowly. Unlikely as it was, there was always the risk that the larger hanger would turn out to be empty, and in that case Nike's idea would prove useful. "All right. You have five minutes. If you're not back by then, we're leaving without you."
Nike nodded slightly. She was well aware of the risk her suggestion would put her in, but she was also confident in her ability to handle herself. Five minutes...for someone as fit as her, it would be more than enough to search the place, and get back to the others.
Laetitia nodded briefly to her two teammates, then readied her gun and hurried towards the entrance to the second hanger. Blade's eyes lingered on her for a moment, a slight frown appearing on his face. The nagging feeling that something was wrong was still there, and quite frankly it was starting to make him a bit edgy.
"Blade?" Blade turned around, and Jordane sent him a questioningly look, the action reminding him that he had someone other than Nike to worry about.
"I know. Let's move," he said and headed for one of the doors on each side of the wide gates.
Laetitia could take care of herself, she'd proven that more than once. She was a professional and had the necessary skills and ruthlessness needed to survive in a situation like this. There was no need to worry about her.
But in the innermost corners of his mind, the doubt kept nagging.
* * *
Much to Laetitia's surprise, the door to the hangar opened without a sound, and she carefully stepped into the silent building. The sun had heated up the place, and without air conditioning, the atmosphere inside was almost unbearably hot.
To Laetitia, it was only a minor annoyance, though, and she easily forced the discomfort aside as she let her eyes survey the wide area. The place seemed to be almost empty - there were only some wooden crates near the wall, and a few, large shapes at the end of the hangar, all covered by a dusty, white fabric. The shapes were more than large enough to be vehicles of some kind, and Laetitia hurried down there, constantly keeping an eye on the surroundings as well as the time.
She reached the first of the large shape and pulled the heavy fabric down, only to curse as she saw what they hid. Four large metal tanks stacked closely, and a quick look on one of them revealed their content to be gasoline. Angrily, she pulled the fabric away from the other two shapes as well, and was greeted by the same sight - tank after tank of gasoline and propane, all neatly stacked and labeled.
A fuel-storage? Laetitia thought disgusted. That's all?
She turned around with an angry motion, and stalked away from the large tanks. She'd almost reached the door at the end of the hangar when she heard movement outside, and she barely had time to hide before the gates to the hangar opened.
Laetitia cast a look around the crate she hid behind, and cursed silently as she got a good look at the group of people outside.
Soldiers? Damnit!
* * *
"Over here!" Jordane called quietly from the truck she had been checking. "It doesn't have doors, but everything else seems to be in order on this one," she said as the others reached her. They'd spread out after they had checked the first of the many trucks in the hangar and found that it had lacked both steering wheel and gears.
Apparently, this was where the older, broken vehicles had been placed, and that had complicated things more than a bit.
"Good," Blade replied, and got into the driver's seat, before tearing out the lower part of the dashboard unceremoniously. "Sanderson, grab the gas and fill up the tank," he ordered and motioned towards the small stack of gas containers by the wall.
Kyle nodded and did as he was told, and Blade quickly found the two wires he would need to hotwire the truck. He reached up to adjust the rearview mirror, and there, in the dusty glass, was the faintest shadow of a movement.
Blade reacted instantly and got out of the truck while he readied his gun, but it was too late. The first gunshot tore though the air, the sound strangely dull. Kyle let go of the gas containers and immediately froze the air around him...and found himself face to face with a small, thick needle.
Sedatives? Shit!
Kyle hurried to Suzuka, who had already taken cover behind a wooden crate, and quickly analyzed the situation. It didn't look good - the soldiers were blocking the main exit, as well as the smaller exit on the other side of the building, and despite of the trucks, the four mutants were still very exposed.
Kyle saw two of the soldiers try to sneak around one of the trucks, and then collapse on the ground as Blade raised his gun and fired twice in rapid succession. Kyle wasn't sure how many bullets were left in the gun, but it couldn't be many.
Damn...
"Kyle!" Suzuka's warning made Kyle turn around, and too late did he see the soldiers who had somehow managed to sneak up on them. He felt a needle pierce his skin, and saw Suzuka attack one of the soldier, but the sedative had already started to take effect, and she missed her target. Kyle tried to fight the drug, but his mind was too groggy to make a real effort. Somewhere behind him he heard two more gunshots, followed by a third, and then the click of an empty cartridge. The darkness started to claw at the edges of his mind, and he tried to force away the dizziness, to clear his head a bit. And for a moment he managed to keep it at bay, to push it back-
- And then there was nothing.
* * *
The first bullet pierced the air and dug itself deep into the wooden crate that Laetitia hid behind. She reacted instantly, rolling away from the crate and into the cover of the next just as a several other bullets tore through the wood of her former hiding place.
How did they...? Laetitia frowned, but interrupted herself. Answers would have to wait - right now she had to get out of there.
She ignored the gunshots, and got to safety behind a third crate at the nick of time. A quick survey of the area revealed that while her original exit was blocked, there was still a smaller emergency exit across the room. Laetitia fired once at the soldiers, using the bullet to distract them for long enough to find cover behind a crate that was a bit closer to the exit. She raised her gun again and prepared to fire, when-
- The door to the exit was kicked in, revealing half a dozen soldiers.
Shit!
Laetitia moved instinctively and sought cover behind two crates that offered her at least a minimum of protection from the two groups of humans.
The soldiers fired again, forcing Laetitia to retreat, and too late did she realize what they were doing.
They were trying to back her into a corner...and judging from the current situation, they were succeeding.
A bullet tore through the air and dug deep into the wall beside Laetitia. They were shooting to kill, that much was certain, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that with one half-empty cartridge, and at least two dozen soldiers to use it on, she was in trouble.
Laetitia had always prided herself with her strategic skills, but this was one situation even she couldn't see a way out.
And she hated herself for it.
She had been cornered by a group of incompetent humans, by a group of mere pawns, and she hadn't even seen it coming. Her eyes grew cold as she surveyed the area until her gaze finally came to rest on the fuel tanks at the end of the room. She would not let herself be defeated by a group of unskilled humans. They were nothing but unwitting pawns in a far larger game - like pawns they lived, and like pawns they would die.
More gunshots, then shouting and the sound of footsteps as the soldiers closed in on her. Violet eyes narrowed, radiating nothing but cold determination as Laetitia tightened her grip on the gun, waiting until the very last second, making sure that all of the soldiers were as close as they could be. They might win, but their victory would be hollow, tainted by the blood of their comrades in arm. And in their grief, their loss, their pain, and their suffering, she would reach out and claim her revenge. They were mere pawns, and like pawn they would have to sacrifice everything topple a queen.
Inhale. Exhale. Slow, calculated movements, graceful even now.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Aim...
Checkmate.
* * *
