The Dragon Tamer

(*Rating may change in later chapters* PG-13 for swearing and suggestive actions and words. P/OC (a little R/B) Comes into play after X:2. What are these dreams John's been having? And who is this new girl at the old mansion? (( ' Indicates thoughts))

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the original X-Men or the topic.

Chapter 12: The Tank

-=-

"Get in there! Now!" The soldier huffed as he shoved Marie, Allen, and Jake into the thick glass tank. It was large enough to be a room. 'What are they going to do with us?' They had covered Allen's eyes so he couldn't use his powers (He can't see what he's moving), they tied a dark sash over Marie's mouth, gagging her and tied her hands tight behind her back, to keep her from removing her gloves and doing anything funny to them.

She noticed they hadn't done anything special to Jake, 'Why is that?' She didn't have much time to think about it, as she had been tossed to the wall and a large metal hoop clamped around her neck and then to the wall. Rainman and Paraschic had the exact same thing done to them. The clamps were nearly tight enough to suffocate them, so they had no chance to slide out.

One of the guards laughed at something unknown and turned to stare at them, before placing the keys in a metal box connected to the side of the tank, it was water-proofed for some reason. The box wasn't locked or anything and the guards laughed one more time and left. She frowned. They did that on purpose. 'Maybe Allen can use his powers..... no, he can't see. And he isn't experienced enough to find and direct it without seeing it. But what if Jake could untie his blindfold?'

She looked over at Jake through the corners of his eyes, wanting to tell him her thoughts, but all that came out was a muffled, "Yake! Uhnhie Ayen' eehs!" He looked at her through the corners of his eyes and blinked. Confused. Marie sighed; it wouldn't do any good anyway. They can't turn their heads, so he couldn't see what he was working with.

She was contemplating another way out when she heard a 'whooshing' sound. 'Sounds like someone's flushing a toilet...' She mused to herself. 'They brought us all the way down here to make us listen to toilets flush?' The sound was getting louder, much louder, and she could easily tell there was much more than a little water. 'What the hell?'

Marie looked up, but she couldn't see very far up. Then she felt it, water, hundreds of gallons of it. Pouring all over them. She was about to panic when Jake lifted his hands up and went to work. The water poured all around them, but they were in a circle of nothing but air. They tried to breathe as little as possible, knowing the air wasn't unlimited. 'If they wanted to drown us, why didn't they block Jake?'

After only about five minutes Jake was beginning to break a sweat. The weight of all that water was becoming harder and harder to hold. The fact that his neck was braced to the wall didn't make it any easier either. Then he heard someone banging on the glass in front of him. He wanted to look, but didn't dare. He was losing in some spots, as there were a few areas of their 'circle' where water was pouring through.

-=-

John Allerdyce banged on the glass of the tank; it hadn't been too hard to find, what with the water pouring and everything. He could tell his friend was beginning to lose control over the two-stories of water above him. He banged again, gaining Marie's attention. He was pretty sure he had Allen's attention, but the poor boy was blindfolded and had no real idea what was going on.

Meanwhile Kaylin looked around for something to open the door with. 'Don't they usually keep a key around here?' She turned the corner of the tank and saw a guard walking towards her. "Hey!" The man yelled and ran faster. She panicked and shot a blast of fire at him. He fell over in surprise, and she ran over. Taking his belt, she tied his ankles to his wrists and felt around for keys. He complained and threatened her the whole time, but she knew he couldn't escape.

John, who had been watching the whole thing, ran over to help her find the keys. He patted a pocket and heard the familiar jingle of metal on metal. 'Keys!' Kaylin beat him to them and yanked them out before racing to the door of the tank. She fumbled for a moment, but finally found the right key.

-=-

The stream of sweat was now running into his eyes, and he knew he couldn't hold the water any longer. He just prayed the others would forgive him wherever they went after they died. With a loud grunt he let go, and was nearly crushed by the sudden gush of cool liquid. Silently he closed his eyes and waited to die. But what was this? The water was leaking out of somewhere!

His eyes shot open and he would have fallen over with relief had his neck not been clamped to the wall. John and Kaylin stood off to the side as the water rushed out the door. Not all of the water ran out of the door, opening it had triggered the draining system in the tank. So most of it went there. They all breathed again.

Quickly as she could, Kaylin ran in and took off Allen's blindfold, and Marie's gag. "The key to the neck braces are in that little box!" Jake pointed weakly to the metal box in the wall. John nodded and ran over to retrieve them.

-=-

After five confusing minutes of unlocking and untying, the five were out of the room and heading up to meet with Amanda and the others. John breathed heavily; they were almost out of this hellhole. 'I wonder how Amanda's getting along?'

---