Shalimar switched the Helix, for the second time that day onto auto-pilot. She twisted round in her seat and looked on as Mac and Alex told Maia every little detail about their adventure. How they had flipped and kicked and punched and jumped their way out of danger.
She remembered the first time she had gone up against the guards at the Genomex compound, before the GSA existed. When she had gotten back to Sanctuary after completing her mission there had been no one to share that excitement with. She had told Adam all the details, yes but there had been nobody she could have really told, like Mac and Alex were doing now. She remembered going to sleep that night and feeling empty. Victories were only victories when you could share them with others.
Her memory moved on a little way to when Jesse had shown up. They had gone out on their first mission together and all the way home in the Helix they had re-enacted it like teenagers, practically bouncing off the walls.
Brennan had been talking to Adam, letting him know what happened through all of the chatter. He looked up and saw Shalimar watching it all. He made his way to the front of the ship and sat down in his seat, next to Shalimar's.
'You okay?'
'Yeah, just thinking.'
They looked at each other and both realized that the time had come to have the 'where is this going?' talk.
But they never got the chance.
'Does one of you maybe wanna land the plane? Cos we're here,' Jesse called from the back. They had been staring at each other for a while and he and Emma had both been sharing knowing smiles. Brennan and Shalimar obviously thought it was all a secret from the rest of Mutant X.
'How dense do they think we are?' he asked in hushed tones.
Emma giggled and then abruptly stopped as Shalimar turned around, a questioning look on her face.
'Whatever,' she said as she turned back round to navigate the plane down to ground level.
They had landed approximately five minutes away from the warehouse and now had to figure out their next plan of action.
'Its no good us just storming in there,' said Emma, looking across at Shalimar knowing that was exactly what she wanted to do.
'What else can we do? If Gabriel's in that building there is a 50/50 chance that he already knows we're here and is running or getting ready to fight right now,' declared Shalimar. She desperately wanted to get her hands on Gabriel. She no longer cared if he killed her in the process just so long as she got a couple of punches in first.
Mac, Maia and Alex had hung back when the debate had first started. They weren't a part of the Mutant X team, they had never done this kind of thing before. What use could they possibly have been? But now it looked like the group was split, Mac could tell. Brennan and Shalimar were all for racing in their, guns blazing, ready for the fight whereas Jesse and Emma favoured a more cautious approach.
Mac didn't know what she wanted to do. This was Gabriel, her big brother. How could she let them go in there and beat the crap out of him? But then again, how could she not? After everything he had done didn't he deserve it?
Then she felt it again.
When they had landed there had been something nagging away at her but she pushed it aside, thinking, hoping that it was nothing. But now she couldn't. It had gotten stronger and she didn't know why but she knew she couldn't just let it lie. If it was important she might never forgive herself.

Gabriel paced the room in front of Sara. Her face was wet from a combination of tears and blood. She had a huge gash on her forehead and her arms were aching from the weight of the chains. She could no longer remember how long she had been there, everything had drifted together in her mind.
He was getting pissed off with the lack of noise. Atleast with Shalimar there had always been the banter but this girl seemed content to sit in silence. He walked round to the back of her and looked her up and down, his eyes eventually resting on the subdermal governor in the back of her neck. He remembered the trapped feeling that they brought to the wearer, how he couldn't use any of his abilities without excruciating pain. He had hated them. He smiled as he thought about how Sara must feel. Trapped. That was exactly the way he wanted her. The weaker she was, the easier it would be for him to 'persuade' her.

Shalimar trod softly on the ground. She looked back over her right shoulder and saw the rest of the team. They were standing behind other buildings, anything that would keep them out of the immediate eye range of anyone in the warehouse. She had gone forward first, closely followed by Mac and Alex. Being ferals all of them were a lot more quiet than the rest and there was more chance of them getting into the building undetected.
The warehouse looked just like every other warehouse in the immediate vicinity. It had steel grey walls and a sloping roof which appeared to be made out of corrugated iron, patches of rust here and there. There was a huge sign on the side announcing that the building belonged to MacGrath and Sons, whoever they might have been. They clearly didn't own it anymore. There were four huge windows across the side of the building but they looked as if they were covered in blinds on the inside.
Shalimar signaled for the other two to head round the sides of the building to see if there was some easier access somewhere. She crept up to the wall and bent her legs slightly. With a quick push off the floor she jumped and landed lightly on the roof of the warehouse. Steadying herself almost immediately she took a look around to see where everyone else had gone. They had all talked it over and had figured that it was completely useless and quite possibly extremely dangerous for Jesse to simply phase one of the walls. They had no idea what could be in there waiting for them so the ferals had been sent ahead to check it all out.
She walked across the roof, cringing everytime her foot made contact. With her feral hearing she was sure she could be heard but she kept going until she reached the other side. She had been hoping for some sort of skylight but there was nothing.
She looked down at the sound of tyres skidding on concrete. A red BMW came to a halt and a brunette got out of it. It took a while for Shalimar to remember the face. Shal had kicked her ass at the school when they had first picked up Mac and then again when Mutant X had picked up her and Alex in the woods. She looked a mixture of pissed off and scared for her life.
'Well, I'm guessing she's not happy with me,' whispered Shalimar to herself. 'Guys, I'm thinking Gabriel will know pretty soon.'

Annie opened the door to the main room of the warehouse. She saw the girl chained to the chair in the middle of the room and then glanced across at Gabriel, leaning against the wall. He looked up at her and then across at Sara.
'You lost them,' he said calmly. Annie was even more frightened by this than if he had grabbed her by her throat and started choking the life out of her.
'I'm sorry Gabriel. I thought I had them and then Mutant X showed up and...' she trailed off, knowing that no excuse was good enough for Gabriel. Her head dropped onto her chest. She knew what was coming, she had seen it happen before. The links who had failed in their particular tasks before had all been treated to the same thing, in completely different ways.
'You know, its a shame. I liked you Annie, I really did. And I didn't want to see you hurt, but then you let me down,' said Gabriel as he pushed himself off the wall and walked towards her. 'And now, in repayment for your failure, it looks like I'm gonna have to punish you.'
He walked round to the back of her and traced imaginary shapes up and down her spine. It sent shivers rolling through her entire body.
And then he heard it.
He had suspected as soon as he had found out about the dealings with Mutant X in the woods that they were coming to find Sara. He had heard, in the distance the sound of a plane coming in to land. It had been quiet but his feral hearing was stronger than that. And then he heard the lightest of taps on the roof of the warehouse. At first he had put it down to birds or the wind but the noise had persisted and now he had to do something.
'There is a way you could redeem yourself,' he whispered through Annie's sleek hair. She turned her head slightly to look at him, a small smile replacing the look of fear that had been on her face just moments before.
She raised her arms above her head and closed her eyes, willing the heat that was constantly within her to push itself out. An orange glow slowly developed, spreading outwards from the palm of her hands to her fingertips. Gradually the orange glow became deeper and then with one last push the glow transferred itself from her hands to the ceiling.

Shalimar made a signal to Mac to stay where she was. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on. A few minutes ago she had heard voices, one of them definitely Gabriel's but they had quieted down and now she couldn't hear a thing.
Suddenly Gabriel threw open the door and strode out into the sunlight. He walked a little way across the concrete to a group of links who had been discussing what was going on inside. He said something to them quietly that Shalimar didn't catch. The group broke apart and they all wandered off in their own directions.
'Damn it,' Shalimar said under her breath. She had to warn the others that they had been found out. They would have to pull back while she went in alone.
She drew her comlink up to her lips but then something weird started happening. Heat seemed to be seeping out of the roof she was standing on. Gabriel didn't know about the others, he knew about her.
Her feet were gradually getting hotter and hotter, and drops of perspiration were starting to form on her forehead, the cause a mixture of fear and heat. She walked across to the middle of the roof trying to work out which would be the safest way down, which new mutant would be easiest to beat. Unfortunately she didn't get to make the decision.
As she stepped onto the seam between the two slopes of the roof it gave way beneath her and she fell with an enormous crash to the floor below.