Proxy Blue was back to her animated self, sneering out from the TV screen. "You know what, people, this girl is so impressed. The aftermath of the Prozac Syndrome was a little rocky, but with few exceptions it's good to see you all getting it together. I hear somewhere out west the local humans went and freed the mutants from a quarry, and now they're all working together to make it a proper working plant again. The soldiers guarding the place apparently had orders not to resist any activities of this kind. This is not the only place this is happening, and I've gotta wonder if this is a co-ordinated effort, or just coincidence?
"Those at the top seem completely unaware of what's happening out on the street and it's this reporter's opinion that there's something going on up there that we all need to be keeping our eyes on. I love all this good news, kids, but I need the juicy stuff!"
*****
Shalimar couldn't help looking sideways at Dale in the passenger seat. They were parked up the road from the old members' club where Lena had told them the Inner Circle was based, waiting for Adam to show up. While she didn't fully trust Lena, or Dale, or Eckhart, in these times she had no choice but to take them at their word and cover her back as much as possible.
Dale, however, was doing a damned fine impression of Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop and Shalimar found it creepy the way s/he kept imitating the feral's own body every time Brennan was around. And Brennan wasn't objecting.
It was no skin off Shalimar's nose if Dale and Brennan got it together, and with Dale switching genders it would be an interesting sex life, but she really got severely creeped out by the idea that it was copy of her body being used. That's if something were happening. Which it might not be.
Dale's gaze grew intense as s/he squinted out front. "Adam's here," s/he said, excitedly
Shalimar followed hir gaze, and watched Adam paying off a cab driver before walking into the building. She hit a number on her mobile. "He's in."
Lena had hacked into the building systems and would set off some internal distractions while they used the ID's she'd set up to get some of them through security - they didn't dare assume that the Langley trick would work more than once. During the preliminary reconnaissance, she'd also found links that strongly suggested that the Cyberteam interloper was working from inside.
Charlotte had been pretty subdued, helping Lena and letting Paulo coddle her, something which Shalimar felt a small pang of jealousy over. Now, Paulo came by the car and swapped places with Shalimar who walked over to a café bar and met Brennan there. The two put the earpieces to their mobile phones in, dialling into a conference call so they could all stay in touch. Without the sophisticated equipment of Sanctuary or Genomex, it was the best alternative they could come up with.
While Dale, Paulo and the boys took Eckhart in the front door to find Adam, Brennan and Shalimar did a little B&E round the back, intending to try and break the Psionic Circle apart. The security system was average, and certainly not built to resist an elemental with a talent for being sneaky or a feral with perfect balance.
There were alarms going off inside but they were elevator alarms, as it seemed that they'd all become stuck at once. Shalimar's idea and Lena's work. The panic from any claustrophobes would help hide anything any psionics might pick up on.
Brennan led the way towards the basement, but as they reached the first of the lower levels Shalimar's eyes flashed at the familiar scent that hit her.
"Jesse's here," she stated. "I'll see you down there." She didn't give Brennan a chance to object, slipping through fire doors and disappearing down a corridor. She found the locked steel door, even found the person bringing food with the key in his pocket. Opened the door and found Jesse there, hands in VR gloves, head in VR helmet.
The Cyberteam logo flashed at the top right of the monitor, although the rest of the screen was moving too fast for her to see. And from that one symbol she had to assume that Jesse was back in control of Cyberteam. But from this locked room? Inside the inner Circle?
She could see his SGFlex, but decided against removing it for the moment, her gut instinct yelling that something was very wrong.
A sudden shift told her that Jesse was back with the real world, and she watched him carefully for clues. He looked healthy enough, if a little on the lean side, and definitely tired, and the blue eyes that sparkled with humour when she got her first glimpse of them quickly dulled and glazed over.
He looked at her expectantly.
"I've uh…" She felt a bit awkward, as though he were judging her. "I've come to get you out of here."
"I'm not allowed," Jesse told her flatly.
Very, very wrong.
"Jess, it's me. We can do anything, remember?"
He blinked slowly at her. "I don't know you. And I can't leave without Victoria."
"Oh, for –" she cursed and pulled her hair in frustration. "I don't have time for this." Spinning, she kicked him in the gut and followed up with a stunning blow to the back of his neck. "You're out of practice, kiddo. Time was, you'd never have let me get away with that."
She was about to pick him up and take him outside when the Cyberteam logo still flashing caught her eye. The Command matrix was still open on the machine, so it didn't take her more than a moment to open it up for remote access. Lena grabbed it, rerouted and yelled 'Got it!" down the phone.
And then all hell broke lose. Almost in unison, the building started to shake and Brennan screamed, long and loud.
Brennan was in trouble and she needed to go help him, because there was no one else. But she couldn't do that with an unconscious Jesse, and she couldn't leave him here.
She had to choose, and it tore her apart.
Jesse was safer here than Brennan was down there.
So that was her choice.
The Psionic Circle was dying. They'd been in panic as the sprinklers had suddenly gone off, threatening to short-circuit some of their hard wiring, but good little puppets with extinguishers had seen to them, and the overwhelming fear of those in the elevators had forced them to throw shields up that muted not only the hysteria but also every other sense they had extended.
And then Brennan with his sparks came in and fried their circuits. The only reason they weren't taking out their rage on him was because his own powers had backfired, his streams of electricity pouring out uncontrollably, destroying him, destroying them, and his mind was on such all-encompassing fire that they couldn't get in, and they were dying too, the machine was dying and taking them with it.
"We have to leave the machine!" Emma cried, even though her entire being screamed that she couldn't live without it. "We can build another!"
"No!" screamed Path. Always the voice of reason among them, her vehemence was shocking. "I've worked too hard for too long to get this kind of strength and power, I'm not giving it up now! I will not be a victim again!"
Emma even felt herself, swept along with the others' agreement, feeling suddenly bitter. She'd looked out for Brennan, always, and now he'd done this. Not only had she had Cyber watch over Jesse, but on her behalf, once they'd realised that Brennan had hir, Path'd had Dale look out for him. So they felt betrayed by both Dale and Brennan and wanted, needed to lash out at both of them.
Except the pressure was building up as the electricity bit into their hardware and they needed to get out now before their brains exploded. But Path and Kin and the others would not move. Cyber was already shrieking in agony, her affinity with the machinery making her a direct conductor, both physically and mentally. And Emma couldn't bear her pain.
"I'm leaving," she told Path. "I'm taking Cyber; she's a child and deserves more than this, and you won't stop me."
Path and Kin, and the others to a lesser extent, threw anger and frustration and threats at her, but Emma stood her ground. "Please, let us go, can't you feel her agony?"
"We feel what you do, you know that," Path cried, "but we need your strength, both of you."
"Staying here will kill us all."
Blue fire cracked and snapped viciously around them, then Path sighed and the seven shared what amounted to a mental hug, a sharing of supportive feelings and thoughts and wishes and promises. "Take Cyber and go. We'll hold back to give you as much time as possible before the machine brings the building down."
"Path…" Emma tried to think of anything to make them all come with her, but they'd read her before she finished as they always had.
"No, Em. We'd rather die than leave here," Path said. And then they were gone and she was sitting in the chair. And it didn't hit her until she'd left her cubicle to find Cyber that she'd never feel the five women who'd been an integral and intimate part of her for so long, again.
Brennan was being ripped apart from the inside out and was helpless to prevent it as his worst nightmare came true. His powers were being used against him by his own body. Worse than being a victim, he was becoming a victim to himself.
And he would not let that happen again.
He could let it all burn out and hope the process didn't kill him, but he'd fought all his life for one thing or another and that was not a route he was willing to go down. So he used the fire burning along his nerve endings to take him to the core of his being, used the pain to bolster his failing determination, and wrestled for control over his own powers.
It hurt more physically than he'd ever dreamed possible, but it was worse mentally as memories of his time in the power station assaulted him. He'd pushed that whole thing to the back of his mind, pretended it hadn't happened, but it had and now it was back and threatened to pull him back into a maelstrom of unresolved anger and feeling of entrapment and victimisation. But he needed to get to his powers, face that same maelstrom and reach right through it to find them.
God, but it burned, and he pushed his way through, not stopping to really look at what was there, promising himself he'd deal with them later, even though he knew it was a promise he'd never keep. But he made progress anyway, breaking through to find the blue globe of energy that lived there, that gave him control. And he powered down, ending up exhausted and shaking on the floor.
Then Shalimar was there urging him to get up, protecting him from falling debris that would have sliced into him had she not been there to kick it away.
He didn't know where he got the strength from, but if Shal said move, he was gonna move.
Shalimar helped the stumbling Brennan up the stairs out of the Basement as the building shook and plaster cracked around them. The going was too slow and she tried to hurry the elemental, but the big guy was hurting and shaking and so weak right now.
She willed, and chivvied and supported him up to Jesse's level and left him in the stairwell while she dashed off to find Jesse. She had no idea how she was going to get them both out, but she had to try. She couldn't let either one of them join the blood and rot her mind still taunted her with.
Skidding to a halt she screamed in denial at the fallen ceiling that blocked her way. She couldn't get to Jesse, had no choice but to leave him behind now. She should have taken him to the stairwell before, and she hadn't, and now she couldn't get to him.
Jesse lurched up from the floor, his gut and shoulder aching, and checked out his computer. He was locked out of Cyberteam, and there was no sign of Cyber. A surge of rage welled up in him. The bitch cat had taken away everything that had meant anything to him.
Except Victoria.
She would come for him. Except, with the building falling down, maybe she couldn't, maybe he'd have to find her.
The door was open. He could go. Maybe he should. But he hadn't been told he could. At least, not by anyone he'd been told he should listen to. The bitch cat said he could, but she didn't count did she? It was all so confusing.
A cracking sound and the he looked up to see the ceiling starting to fall.
He wasn't allowed to make decisions, certainly not big ones. But Victoria surely wouldn't mind if he kept himself safe, would she?
So, tentatively, he crept out of his room, and down the corridor, away from the ceiling that chose to fall, taking half his room with it and covering him with plaster.
Coughing, he kept going, passing several people who were running in different directions in their bids to escape the building. He was moving through a dusty foggy dream world he didn't understand. And then to his enormous relief Victoria was there. With Raymond.
But something was wrong.
Victoria lay next to the wall, blood oozing from a cut in her scalp where she'd clearly been hit by debris. Raymond was on his hands and knees over her, protecting her and begging her to wake him.
She couldn't be dead. She wasn't allowed to be.
Jesse touched her throat nervously, but Ray didn't stop him, so he grew a little more confident, smiling as he found a pulse. He wondered that Ray hadn't done that himself, but the relief that shone on the other man's face made his own pale in comparison.
Victoria mumbled and sighed but didn't wake up.
"She's letting you go," Ray told him suddenly. "I don't want you near her, and she doesn't want you anymore."
"What? But I, I –" More worlds crashing apart.
"Trust me," hissed Ray. "You'll thank me for this later," and grabbed Jesse's head, pushing forehead to forehead. "No time for finesse."
White noise, red rage and silent black, one after another then crashing together, and when Jesse came to, it was in time to see Raymond carrying the limp Victoria away.
Adam wasn't quite sure what was happening. He didn't care for the politics, and had only popped by to run the daily maintenance on the Psionic Circle on his way to LexMor to continue his research into finding a more terminal solution to the mutant problem. But from the moment he'd entered things had been odd.
Various malfunctions meant that he hadn't gone directly down to the basement, instead opting for the members lounge to see who was there.
He found Langley and one of her minions, unsurprisingly since she spent most of her waking life here, plus a couple of others.
"Well, well," said Mason Eckhart, coming in behind him, surrounded by flunkies. "How very nice to see you again."
"Need a little help?" Adam replied, scratching at his chin whilst looked directly at Eckhart's ravaged face.
"Oh, just a minor little set back. It'll all be dealt with once you get around to giving me back Genomex. But, look at you. Big fish in the little pond here, aren't you?"
"I see your inner bitch hasn't changed then," Adam retorted. "What can I do for you before I have you ejected."
Eckhart was about to reply, but that was when the walls thumped and started shaking.
The California-raised Langley was insistent that it was just a little tremor, despite her minion's statement that they were nowhere near San Andreas.
"Oh, I expect it's just a little molecular having a tantrum somewhere," she said airily, putting her tea down smartly as it sloshed about. "I just hope it's over before I stain something."
But it only got worse, and Adam dived past Eckhart to get to the basement.
Eckhart put his surgical mask back on and said, "I think we'll come back another day," before marching out, just in time as the front doorway collapsed. He could hear Langley screeching as Raymond tried to physically haul her to safety.
Waiting outside, they listened to Brennan and Shalimar still inside, Paulo and Dale both ready to dive in and pull their comrades out.
Emma's shields had never been so strong, nor raised so high as she blocked out the people round her. She couldn't feel the pain of her psionic sisters, they were shielding her from that, but she knew they were in agony.
She carried the unconscious Cyber as best she could. The kid turned out to be all of around ten years old, and at that age was big enough to cause her problems, forcing her to stop and rearrange the girl at every opportunity.
Rounding a corner she collided with Jesse. "We have to get out of here," he told her, but didn't seem to have any plan as to how to accomplish that. Neither did she, for that matter, and giggled at the thought of them both with matching scattered wits.
"This is Cyber," she said as she lost her grip again, letting the girl slip bonelessly to the floor. "Look after her for me?"
Smiling slightly, he heaved the girl over his shoulder in a fireman's left. "Okay, well, do you know how we get out of here? It's like a maze."
"Not a clue. Hug a wall and see where it takes us?"
Finding another stairwell, they climbed up, only to meet Adam on his way down.
"Emma!" Adam looked shocked.
"The Circle's gone," she told him, "We need to get out of here."
Back to Brennan, and Shalimar pushed and pulled him out, dust getting everywhere resulting in bloodshot tearing eyes and choking lungs.
Even outside, they daren't stop; the building was crumbling, bricks dropping and windows caving. They needed to get out of the way.
Stumbling along with blurred vision, they prayed that the others had made it out, until hands caught them, and Dale and Paulo were there for them, and none of then could understand why Shalimar clung to Brennan and Paulo, refusing to look at the disintegrating building.
Emma screamed when the Circle finally gave up; even Cyber screamed without waking up as Jesse and Adam pulled them out, far away from Eckhart or his flunkies.
The other side of the block, Dale clutched hir ears, hir scream silent and deafening. Anyone within the district with the slightest psionic bent felt their pain.
And then it was gone, and all that was left was one block of devastation.
*****
