Chapter 6
BIG thanks to Jouliana who had allowed me to steal the concept of her fic, Not In My Backyard for the next couple of chapters. You are my inspiration, Jou, thank you! PLEASE read her fics and review so that she doesn't tell me off for nicking her ideas!
In this fic I have done something I promised myself I would never do... flashbacks... Noooo! Oh, and Emma0211, Don't count on it.
Adam sighed and wiped the back of his hand across his eyes. Shalimar was still sobbing quietly on the other end of the phone he held in his hand. Trying to hush the feral he wondered when things, seeming to be looking up for the girls, had gone so wrong. Maybe it had been that article on the front page of the newspaper.
"Adam!" Jesse's call echoed through Sanctuary, pulling Adam awake from where he sat in front of his computer screen. Activating his comm. ring he spoke into it.
"Yes, Jesse, What is it?"
"The media scanner has found something I think you should see." Adam sighed and sat up, moaning at his aches. The media scanner was a computer program set to scan all of the media channels, newspapers, news broadcasts and proxy blue, for anything that might offer a location of a new mutant that needed their help. He climbed the stairs and went to stand at Jesse's side.
Jesse looked pale and worried. Opening a window he displayed a front sheet of a newspaper. He gave Adam time to take in the headline and then moved on to a second paper, and a third. The fourth he showed had photos and Adam stopped him there.
"How many of these are there?"
"I've found seven so far on the front page and three on the second. Four have pictures of the men. All of them say Shalimar did this, some mention Emma as an accomplice, and all have a detailed description of them both. A description most people could recognise them by, Adam. Emma and Shalimar aren't the kind of people who disappear in crowds; they both have distinctive looks." Adam looked at the description of the men's injuries. Deep cuts across the stomach, some on the chest. The damage to one man was much worse than the others - he was still unconscious through a head wound they thought might give him brain damage. And again and again it was emphasised that it was all done by the bare hands of one woman whose eyes had changed from brown to yellow. This was not good.
Or maybe it had been Shalimar's decision to fight back that had caused the downwards turn.
"Adam, you keep all our medical records don't you?"
"Yes, of course."
"And they're just the same as anyone else's records, just as valid."
"Yes... Shalimar, what are you thinking?"
"I'm going to take my medical records to the police and show them exactly what happened that night. That I was protecting myself and my friend from further attack. If everything goes wrong then at least they know that BOTH of us were in the wrong and they get locked up."
"But you will too."
"Adam, it's better than saying nothing, getting caught in a couple of months and letting them stay free."
"Shalimar, you medical records say some very particular things about you. Not many people would have been able to reach your level of fitness after those burns in such a short amount of time. Are you sure you want this going public? Because it will be very public."
"Think what it would do for us if this goes well Adam. If they can treat me like a normal human being, give me the same rights. It's time we found out if the world would judge us for what we are. Rather than hiding away again."
Or Emma's decision to join her.
"You can't do this alone Shalimar. They're looking for both of us and if you go alone they might not believe you. Besides, you're not fit to fight your way out of a situation if things go wrong."
"No, Emma you can't. I won't let you go to prison for me, and if things go wrong that is where we will end up. We can't fight our way out of this one; it would only make things worse. We have to follow this like anyone else would."
"I'm part of this Shalimar. You can't protect me from this. I'm going with you."
Maybe it had been that naïve promise.
"You'll protect us Adam, if things really go bad?"
"Of course, Shalimar. We'll always be here for you."
Maybe, just maybe it had been that day that man had realised that with a little work they could play God for the day, or maybe it was the day after, when he realised that God for the day meant tomorrow was anyone's game. Maybe it had been Adam Kane on the front lines, playing God with no thoughts of the next day.
What ever it had been it lead to him standing here, talking down a telephone to a petrified feral locked in a box only just big enough to hold her full form, trying to calm her enough to stop her from hurting herself in trying to escape. This had not been part of the plan. Emma was locked in a similar box, in the room next door. Hers was lead lined and with no communication system. He knew that wouldn't block her powers, but he wasn't about to tell them that. They were scared, terrified of these two women. And that was one thing that hadn't fit into their plan. Human nature. So as he reassured Shalimar that he would return as soon as he was able and was dragged back along a long hallway to the observation room he cursed his own race for their intolerance that threatened his children's lives.
Brennan's anger was plain on his face as he re-entered the small observation room. Along the walls screens showing various pictures inside and outside the cages that held the girls. Jesse's eyes were fixed on these and he spared Adam only a glance when he returned. Adam was grateful to see that Shalimar had stopped trying to break out and had calmed a little. Emma was still sitting, as she had been when he had left, cross-legged though she could only just manage it in the confined space and meditating.
Adam turned as a new policeman, one he didn't recognise, entered the room. Anger rising uncalled, Adam began his tirade for the second time that day.
"You can't do this to a human being, it's atrocious. It's inhumane. These women have rights; they came here to accuse three men of rape and grievous bodily harm. One of them was drugged by the men, why are they the ones in custody? Let alone these... torture chambers. How can..." He was stopped mid sentence as the man's eyes disappeared behind a mask of feral yellow. Adam took a breath. "Oh."
"I am very sorry for the way your friends have been treated." He spoke cautiously, as though reading from a script. He gestured almost imperceptibly at a table, mouthing the words 'bug'. Adam nodded, a feral in the police force would be a great asset, to the force and to Mutant X, he had no wish to reveal his identity. "I wouldn't wish those cages on anyone, but people here are scared of what they don't know and can't control. No one will look at the medical files you brought. I've read them through and tried to explain to my colleagues, but they won't listen. Most of them think you're all freaks too, and won't talk to you."
"What happens now?" Brennan asked. The feral sighed and collected himself, putting on a formal face and voice.
"I've been told to inform you that you friends are to be transported to Tingely, to await death by lethal injection."
