Hiya, sorry it has taken me so long to write some more. Schoolwork has been piled on by every single one of my teachers. Lucky me. Anyways heres the next chapter. Sorry if it has been rather slow, I've been trying to build Mac a past before I start on her present and that takes a while. But I promise to try and get to the actual story soon.

Thanks for the reviews, as always once you've read…review.

Have a nice day.

Mackenzie stood up in anger as Gabriel knocked Professor Callaghan over. He was her history tutor and a genuinely nice guy, an unusual trait for a teacher to have she thought with a wry smile. Gabriel didn't notice her and walked out of the room, but a couple of the Strand guys started looking her way. Everybody was sitting up against one of the longer walls, most of them scared and confused, all of them being watched by the 20 or so new mutants.

Mackenzie walked to the front of the group and knelt down next to the Professor. She had to check that he was okay. She knew how powerful a punch from a new mutant could be. She knew she could handle herself but she wasn't so sure about her teachers. And they were just pawns in this little game of Gabriel's.

Mac had learned to hack into computers from a very early age. She was pretty good at it as well. Just like everything she did Mackenzie had picked it all up quickly. Her hacking abilities had grown from her desire to find out what she was. She had been told by all of her foster families that she was special; she was different. And she had always had this feeling that she was a complete individual. She just hadn't known how much of one. So when she had heard tell of a company called Genomex, which specialized in DNA experimentation, she had had to find out more. There were no ifs or buts about it, Mac had to know where she came from and what she was.

So she had hacked until she had gained access to the Genomex system and then she had pored over all the files which bore any relation to her. She had found out about her past, her parents, everything.

Soon all the Strands were watching her. They were just itching for somebody to step out of line cos until Mutant X turned up they had nothing to do. Gabriel's second in command, Annie walked over to the girl. She looked about 16 and in helping her teacher out had just signed her own death sentence. Annie was gonna take great pleasure in killing this one. She had been ordered by Gabriel to kill any student who stepped out of line. She had stepped out of the group, that was enough.

Seeing this another of Mackenzie's teachers started telling her to sit down. He didn't want any of his students to get hurt by these crazy, dangerous people. He had no idea what they were doing in the school or what they wanted but he didn't want his kids to suffer because of them. He just wished Mackenzie would sit down and shut up. She was gonna get into trouble if she didn't get back into the group.

But Mackenzie wouldn't back down. There was no way these creeps were gonna get away with treating all these people like crap. Just cos some new mutants held the belief that they were God didn't mean they got to act like it with regular people who couldn't defend themselves.

The door to Helix opened and Mutant X walked out into the bright sunshine. Shalimar stretched her arms above her head, glorying in the warmth of the sun. Jesse closed the door behind him. The Helix became invisible.

They had landed on the roof of the school and now just had to try and find a way in without being noticed by the Strand if they were even there. Adam had found out nothing new about what was going on inside so for the moment Mutant X was pretty much in the dark. They would have to find out by themselves.

Brennan walked over to the door that presumably would lead them down from the roof. It was locked, just as they had expected.

'Hey Jesse.' Brennan looked over to the blonde haired guy. 'How would you feel about phasing us through this?'

Jesse walked over to the door. He smiled, knowing Brennan would usually have blown it in by this point, and if he hadn't Shalimar would have kicked it down. But stealth was a factor that came into play in this kind of situation. He was glad to be of service with his newly evolved powers. They may not have been as flashy as Brennan's but they still came in handy occasionally.

While all this was going on Shalimar had been checking the perimeter of the building. She had walked around the entire roof looking over all the sides to see if there was any clue as to what was going on. On reaching the fourth wall she had looked over and noticed shards of broken glass all over the ground. The ground may have been four storeys beneath her but with her feral vision she could pretty much pick up anything. She could hear faint sounds presumably coming from a room with a broken window. But they were faint and it was hard, even with her specialist hearing to pick up anything but mumbling.

Emma had been looking around in her own way. She could sense the fear coming from the building beneath her. It was almost overwhelming. That wasn't just a few people being terrified out of their wits down there. There were atleast 75, possibly more. All their emotions were so tangled together that it was hard for her to work out an accurate number. She could sense something else though. It was intimidating and if the last set of emotions hadn't given the game away this set most certainly did. The Strand was in there, and they were terrorizing people. Which meant that somewhere in the whole scheme of things Gabriel had to be involved.

'Emma, Shal, are we getting into this place or what?'

Brennan stood aside to let Shalimar in through the phased door first. With her feral senses she would be able to pick up on any Strand presence in the immediate area.

Shalimar walked quietly through the door. Her eyes glowed as she looked around her. There wasn't a whole lot to see, just winding stairs leading on downwards. There weren't any windows and no Strand guys. She heard Emma, then Brennan and finally Jesse enter through the doorway. She led them down the stairs. Her enhanced senses worked best in this kind of environment. Darkness meant that smell, hearing, even taste were heightened. And it wasn't even that sight was such a problem.

The rest of the team blindly followed Shalimar down, further into the darkness. Finally she reached the bottom and noticing the door which most likely led to the rest of the building she reached out for the handle. No surprise, this door was also locked.

'Hey Jesse,' she whispered. 'How do you feel about working your magic again?'

Annie stood over Mackenzie, watching her. Why would someone want to help someone else just to get hurt in the process? If this girl had have left the teacher well enough alone then Annie wouldn't have to hurt her. It was sad it really was, thought Annie with a twisted smile.

Alex and Maia were watching Mac. They had no idea what she thought she was doing but they knew they had to help somehow. Mac was gonna get her ass kicked unless they got her out of there. The students around Alex looked at him with confusion in their eyes as he stood up. A couple of them tried to drag him back down into a sitting position but he wasn't moving unless it was to help Mac. Maia stood up next to him. They looked each other in the eye, strangely fearless about what they were about to do.

But they didn't get a chance to do anything. Just as Annie drew her foot back preparing to sweep Mac's legs from beneath her a door crashed open up on the balcony. Everybody's heads shot to look upwards just as Shalimar, seeing what was about to happen jumped over the wooden railing onto the floor below. A gasp went up from the students and the teachers and some of the Strand guys started to make their way over to her. Brennan, after firing a couple of tesla coils also launched himself over the balcony onto the floor beside Shalimar. Annie, disappointed that she hadn't gotten the chance to kick some ignorant girls butt went over to join her colleagues. As the fight broke out Emma and Jesse burst through the doors. They had taken the slightly more civilized route down the stairs, taking out a couple of strand on their way.