+ Month 5

When Proxy Blue had an angry face on, she looked positively vampiric. "Since my mailboxes are screaming wastelands of desolation, here's what I think. There are billions of human beings out there, and there are still a few hundred mutants out there. And you know what? You're all exactly the same. All sitting on your asses waiting for someone else to do your dirty work. Most of you don't even know that there's dirty work to be done. If you want to live in a world where anyone can be arrested at anytime for being the wrong size, shape, colour, sex, race, religion or genetic ancestry, then go ahead, stay exactly where you are. But I'm telling you, one day, it'll be you that's looked sideways at by the wrong person, or chosen to paint your front door the wrong colour. You think I'm kidding? Remember when painting your front door red got rotten eggs thrown at it? Think about it. There are people out there willing to fight for you, but you need to get off your asses and help them. Mail me, I'm lonely."

*****

Jesse's head was a complete mess, but at least now he could hide inside a computer to try and sort it all out. He was swamped by events and feelings and memories and all sorts that were tossing him about in a chaotic storm that threatened to drown him at any second.

Morrisen made his skin crawl and even now the trip to this place made him feel sick. Maybe it was a small thing, but to Jesse the mere idea twisted his gut. The older man had put his hand on his leg and run it up…

Jesse had phased right then, involuntarily, and grateful that he had the power to do so. He almost forgot sometimes that he could do that, as Victoria only let him do it as a party trick. Morrisen had cursed and when they'd arrived, the first thing that the man had done was turn his SGFlex to full lock.

The next thing he'd done was put him in what seemed to be a tiny depersonalised bedroom. There he'd got intimate with the girl who lived there, but not in a way he'd ever have dreamed. They'd not spoken a word as she'd put her hands at his temples, leaned her forehead into his and gently delved into his mind. This had been the first time that it occurred to Jesse that there might be something wrong in his own head.

The symbolic picture she used to do what she'd been asked to was a large silver ball with a grid painted on its surface. Like a scuba diver she visited each square, swimming between them looking for the one she wanted, and as Jesse looked closer he could see that each square was a door with a padlock.

She even opened one or two, had a quick look inside and shut them again. One gave him the all too fleeting feeling of warmth, and another of pain, and he wondered what they might have been. Eventually she found the one she wanted and he looked over her shoulder to see inside. There were cables and green boards, black chips and blue flashes and she smiled benevolently, swam back and tugged. The cables had snaked out, grabbed and pulled him at breakneck speed back to reality.

And he remembered. It wasn't a huge amount, but it was enough to kick off. It was learned knowledge, picked up he didn't know when or how, but a knowledge that had been locked away from him for far too long. And when he woke back up into reality he was in a new room, one with a bed and a computer. A really, really smart computer, complete with VR access.

It really was only the learned knowledge he had that he remembered. And that huge silver ball that way too many people had been messing with. Just the thought of anyone playing in his head ever again gave him the shakes, and he didn't even really know why other than it was a violation that too many people had perpetrated.

It didn't take long before he felt up to diving in to the computer, and he was elated when things he'd forgotten fell back into place and he started surfing like he'd never left.

Shortly after that, he'd received his instruction. To take over Cyberteam. That was a name he was sure he should remember from somewhere, but if there was a memory there then it was firmly locked away.

During his surfing, however, he found three people inside the computer that intrigued him.

The first was Proxy Blue. He found her web page while surfing for information on Cyberteam. She had a lot to say, and although at first it meant nothing to him, he kept revisiting because some of her words were tugging at something inside him. After a few red herrings and detours he found that Proxy Blue and Cyberteam shared some commonalities which bore exploring, and there he found the second individual of interest.

There was a Central Control to Cyberteam, and whoever was running it was very smart. This was going to be a challenge and, for the first time since he could remember, his blood sang in anticipation. But there was an odd familiarity to the set up, and what further confused him were files authored in his name.

The third person was in his dreams, he thought. Or at least his daydreams when sat in front of the computer. She led him down electronic pathways, took him flying through cyberspace and exploring hard drives. She gave him an escape and he fell in love. Not with her, but her world. She was always there when he started surfing, green haired, red eyed and wild, and her name was Cyber.

But the real world was grey, mundane and terrifying with his lack of understanding or identity. And then finally there was Victoria. She'd given him to Morrisen, told him to treat the Senator as if he were her, but to remember that she would take him back and that was a promise. And that was the only lifeline Jesse had to hold on to.

*****

Shalimar eyed Brennan at the computer, momentarily uncertain as to whether she was looking at Brennan or Dale, the latter being mischievous and constantly shifting form from one person to another. S/he seemed to have no identity to call hir own, so s/he borrowed others.

But s/he couldn't hide hir scent and that told Shalimar that the person before her was Brennan. "Anything interesting?" she asked, coming to stand behind him.

"No, still nothing on Emma or Jesse. You ready to go?"

"Yep, the guys are just getting together."

Brennan turned towards the console, and Shalimar could virtually feel the jealousy rolling off him. "I suppose Paulo's going with you."

"Yes, he is," she said and paused. "There isn't anything between us you know. He's never touched me like that, and I've never touched him." And it would be none of your business if I did, she thought, but I hate this tension between us.

"You don't touch," *me* "anyone anymore," Brennan remarked stiffly, and Shalimar froze.

It was true, but she couldn't bring herself to face that just yet. "Right," she said, withdrawing. "So stop taking it so personally." Slipping on her jacket, she winced as she realised it was one on loan from Paulo, and with the way Brennan was looking at her he would have realised that too. "So," she began brightly, pretending nothing had happened. "Do you think Charlotte will be a problem?"

"Where she is?" Brennan visibly relaxed as conversation turned to business. "I doubt it."

*****

"We must terminate Morrisen now," Cyber demanded, and the rest of the group recoiled.

"Em asked you to watch over Jesse, Cyber," Path tried to calm her down. "But aren't you being a little over-protective?"

"No." Cyber was emphatic. "Em instructed that Jesse not be damaged. Morrisen conflicts with that instruction. We have agreed this before. Morrisen must be terminated."

"What does Morrisen do, Cyber?" Emma asked.

"Access to that information is denied." Cyber said, and it was clear that no more would come from her apart from a white-hot anger.

"Her reasons don't matter," Kin said flatly. "Cyber is right. Morrisen controls us, he is a threat that must be eliminated and we can do it right now. Kane we can control, make him work for us. Kane wants to destroy us, destroy all mutants, but we can give him reason not to."

"Kane is viable," Cog interjected softly. "Morrisen's futures are all detrimental to us should we continue to be allied."

"For what purpose?" asked Illusion. "What will we do with our freedom?"

"Play!" said Cyber excitedly, and the other six giggled. Though they didn't know her age, Cyber was definitely very young.

"We must have purpose," said Kin. "If Morrisen dies we lose purpose."

"We free the people and help stabilise," said Emma, and a chorus of agreement rose from the others.

"Play, too?" Cyber asked hopefully.

"Play too!" the others agreed. Then there was silence as they concentrated.

They sought out Morrisen and used the link they had with him. Path told him he was dead while Em took away his hope and Kin squeezed his heart while Projector filled his mind with the realities of the death and destruction he'd wrought.

When he was found the next day, it was deemed an unfortunate heart attack.

Adam Kane, however, was not so pliable. When Path tried to get inside his head, he threw her right back out. Emma recognised her own techniques and cursed herself for working with him in her previous life to build up shields.

*****

"Oh. Are you still here?" Eckhart appeared in the living room. "And hasn't that wretched maid been in yet?"

"Yes, she's been in, and the place is spotless," Brennan told him. "We're just leaving."

Dale had chosen to get up as an incredibly ditzy Shalimar this morning, which Brennan took some exception to. "Can't you be someone else?" he complained.

"Like who?" she asked and hir voice deepened, shape changed, hair shortened and darkened slightly and eyes lightened to blue. "Your bestest buddy?" he asked from Jesse's mouth. "Or I know, how about this?" His shape changed again, hair growing longer, redder, eyes widened and mouth narrowed. "You like her too, don't you?" Emma's voice asked.

"Just, stop it!" Brennan snapped, lengthening his stride away from the apartment. "Do what the hell you like. You're of no help anyway!"  Dale's loyalties seemed to switch as often as hir appearance, and although s/he'd claimed no knowledge of where Jesse had gone, s/he'd volunteered to hang around and help. Brennan didn't trust hir as far as he could throw hir.

Switching back to Shalimar, she skipped to catch up. "So, why do you check this place out every day, anyway?" she asked as they headed downtown.

Brennan sighed and wished she'd go away, because a ditzy Shalimar who'd misplaced her braincell had to be one of the most irritating beings on the planet. "Because if Jesse ever shows up, that's where he'd leave a message for me," he said. "For all I know he could be dead, but I'm not giving up hope on either him or Emma."

Dale flipped to Emma than back to Shalimar. "No, they're not dead," she said.

Brennan looked at her, the penny dropping with a loud clang. "You can only mimic people you've seen, right? So when or where did you see Emma?"

Dale blinked. "Might've seen a picture or something," she shrugged.

"You – whoa!" As they rounded the corner to the burnt out derelict that used to house the Cyberteam Central Control, Brennan spotted a forty-something non-descript woman climbing in through a blackened window.

Deciding that anyone official would have just ducked in the police-taped front door, Brennan's curiosity was piqued. The woman did not exactly look like the type to be either squatting or looting.

Leaving Dale with strict instructions not to move, Brennan crept into the building, carefully following the woman through the blackened rooms. A clunk and a squeak behind and Brennan looked to see that Dale had disobeyed him and fallen in through the window. He found it bizarrely off-putting that a Shalimar clone should be so far from the fierce, agile woman he knew.

An unsubtle clearing of the throat and the woman he'd been following was standing in a broken doorway with a gun pointed at them.

"Ooh, Fibbie!" laughed Dale, and switched to Charlotte Cooke.

The woman blinked. "Ms Cooke?"

"No, she's not. Who are you and what are you doing in my friend's apartment?"

"Your friend?" The woman considered a moment and then put her gun away. "You must be Brennan Mulwray."

"Fibbie?" Brennan pushed, echoing Dale.

"*Ex*-FBI. Although I seem to have forgotten to actually turn my badge in. Lena McEnery."

"And you would be here because?"

Lena sighed. "It doesn't matter. It's all ruined. I was hoping to find some Cyberteam evidence that I could have used."

"What, to destroy them?"

"No, to help them." Lena snapped. "I'm sorry, bad day. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be on my way."

*****

When Adam felt the tickling that told him there was a psionic about, he congratulated himself on his ingenuity. He'd been practising some of the meditation techniques he'd been through with Emma before they'd left Sanctuary, but had also done some very fruitful, and very worrying, research.

Recognising that some people, including himself,  were immune to whatever was producing the general lethargy, he'd done some tests and compared the results. And there was a natural immunity there. Well, except for himself and two others; they had no natural immunity, yet were immune anyway. The other two, however, had been in contact with moleculars. A specific type of molecular. One had voluntarily and regularly consumed an aphrodisiac produced naturally by a mutant, while the other had been spat on with acid saliva by another.

Which planted a large healthy seed of paranoia into his brain.

He was at least superficially immune to the psionics, although he wouldn't want to test it out against any great force. But why? When had he touched a secreting molecular recently enough that he'd kept the inherent immunity?

When the call came about Morrisen, Adam knew who had been responsible and went to the basement levels to find the Psionic Circle.

He could feel Emma's emotions. They needed him.

And, when he thought it through, he needed them. He didn't care what happened to the people; they could do as they pleased, but he could use them to control those he didn't have time to play political games with, use them to find and bring in the mutants that were still out there causing havoc.

An agreement was reached.

Smiling, Adam left that place and thought about the other resources suddenly at his disposal. The techno-geek chained to his computer for a start. And if he moved fast, then - as Morrisen had done before him - Adam could take over the spoils of war, including Genomex and LexMor.

*****

Lena was lost in her world of technology. She and Nora worked side by side now, because they were fighting a war.

Battles were fought and lost in nanoseconds, stealth invasions completed faster than light, the intruder with octopus tentacles striking at her systems with unerring accuracy and deadly precision.

They fought each and every encounter with everything they had and, between them, they held their assailant at bay. But it was a close call and the enemy never seemed to sleep. Eventually it would wear them down, but they would both die fighting if they had to.

*****