***
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men or any characters related to them. I do
however own Alexia Tambor, Luke Tambor, and Zydane Maylor.
***
*.. * are toughts ***
*Go, go, go! * Alexia willed her bike to go faster as she tried to escape the car. Even though she had left before Zydane, and had turned instead of going straight, the car had followed her. *What the heck do these people want? Why are they after us? What did we do? *
Kurt hugged her tightly around the waist, making it uncomfortable to breathe. Taking one hand off the handlebars, she tried to loosen his grip. He seemed very reluctant to do so, and just hugged her tighter. She struggled to move his arms, and finally she managed to do so by shoving her hand between her side and his arm and used it like a crow bar to pry his arms away a little. His grip loosened, but was still fairly tight.
Alexia made a bold move by taking her eyes off the road and glancing behind them around Kurt's body. The car was still following, gaining on them. It was no more than a hundred feet behind them. The man was no longer leaning out the window, but Alexia knew that if they caught up with her and Kurt, that they would use the gun.
Thinking quickly, Alexia turned onto a snowmobile trail road that she and her friends used as a short cut to the cemetery. The car wouldn't be able to follow, and perhaps she would be able to loose it.
Tree branches whipped at her head and more than once she had to duck to avoid having her head taken off. Sunlight filtered through the trees brighter than it had when they had left the Bungalow earlier that morning. She wondered how it was possible that twenty-four hours before her only concern was when Zydane would be done with work so she would be able to go trailing. She had had enough trailing in the past twelve hours to satisfy her for the next twelve years.
Alexia's bike finally broke through the line of trees and into the clearing where the cemetery was. There was a road across the cemetery from where they had entered, and she drove her bike across the unkempt area next to a large tombstone at the front of the cemetery. She parked her dirt bike and motioned for Kurt to get off the bike. He did so, and she swung off herself and pried off her helmet.
"What time is it?" she asked, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.
Kurt looked at his watch. "9:15. Ve left the bungalow at five thirty or so this morning."
Alexia nodded. "What are we going to do, Kurt? These people are out to kill us...I bet that's what Zydane saw in the woods...I bet someone was dead, and he didn't want me to see."
"Who vould vant to hurt you all? Vhat did you ever do to anybody?"
"I don't know, Kurt. I wish I did. People can be so dumb sometimes." Her ears pricked up as the sound of a motor reached them. She quickly pushed her bike behind the huge headstone and then ducked in the tall grass behind it herself, pulling Kurt down with her.
The motor sound got louder, and Alexia peered out of their hiding stop to see who it was. She sighed, relieved, when she saw it was Zydane and Luke, and stood and waved at them.
Zydane pulled up next to the tombstone and parked, but did not turn off his bike. He shoved the visor on his helmet up and Alexia saw fear in his eyes. "There are more! They came outta nowhere and followed us. I couldn't get them off my tail. I think I lost them finally, but not for long. We have to get out of here."
"Too late," Luke said grimly. "Listen."
They stretched their ears, and at first they didn't hear anything but only a few moments later, Alexia could hear a high-power car engine heading towards them. She pulled on her helmet and jumped onto her bike, followed by Kurt, and desperately started her bike, giving it as much throttle as possible as soon as it had started, and headed for the snowmobile trail.
Before they reached the trail, two motorcycles appeared at its mouth, blocking her progress.
Alexia slammed her bike into a hard right turn, trying to avoid the motor and just barely missed crashing her bike into a tombstone. Zydane had already turned and was heading to the main entrance, but a car and a few more motorcycles blocked that exit as well.
Alexia's heart thumped hard against her rib cage. Their escape routes were both cut off, and their captors had guns.
Alexia stopped her bike halfway through the cemetery. Behind her were the motorcycles on the trail, and in front of her were the cars on the road.
"HALT! TURN OFF YOUR VEHICLES OR SOMEONE GETS HURT!" shouted a man that had gotten out of the car and was aiming a gun at Zydane, who had pulled up next to Alexia. The teenagers exchanged glances, and out of the corner of her eye, Alexia saw several more guns raised and cocked. She turned off her bike, and Zydane followed suit.
"GET OFF YOUR VEHICLES AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM! PASSENGERS FIRST!"
Kurt and Luke carefully dismounted, breathing hard and nervously. They raised their hands above their heads, keeping their helmets on.
The man then ordered Alexia and Zydane to dismount, and they complied.
"REMOVE YOUR HELMETS!"
Alexia yanked off her helmet and immediately was aware of all the energy racing around her head. Her nerves caused her to become a bigger conductor of the energy, and she felt the air around her grow cold.
The guns stayed pointed at them as another man got out of one of the cars and began to walk towards them. He was tall, with crew cut hair and piercing blue eyes...
Alexia jerked when she realized that this was the man she had given directions to the day before on the road. She had known he hadn't been out for just a casual walk.
As he approached them she made a move to throw her helmet at him, but he was a quick study and said instantly, "I wouldn't throw that if I were you, Miss Tambor. I understand you have a deep affection for all three young men here. It would be very traumatic for you were they to die because of a single reckless act from you."
Alexia stopped in mid-movement and allowed her arm to drop. Her brain was moving fast, and she could tell from Zydane's body language that his mind was racing too.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice more violent than she intended. "What do you want with us?"
"I am Lieutenant Lewis, and I don't want anything from you. In fact, I don't want all of you," he said, stopping about ten feet away from them. "Just you, Miss Tambor...my orders are to retrieve you, Mutant 777, by way of any means."
"You're not getting her," Zydane hissed through clenched teeth. "Over my dead body."
Lewis smiled. "Oh, but you see, we know that your body is only useful to us if you're alive." He turned to Alexia as all the guns shifted, aimed right at Zydane. "Either come quietly, or this will be your beloved Zy's permanent resting place."
"You wouldn't dare," Alexia growled, hiding her fear exceptionally well with anger and defiance.
"No?" Lewis asked, smiling benignly. "Elstore, show her we mean business."
A shot rang out from behind Alexia and Luke suddenly fell to the ground, crying out in pain and clutching at his right shoulder.
Alexia's eyes went wide. Her brother had just been shot. They had just shot her brother. He was bleeding, and she saw tears rolling down his cheeks for the first time since their father had died. *This can't be happening,* she thought.
"Unless you would like a further example of our seriousness, I advise you to comply."
Alexia's head wasn't working straight. Her terror and anger was welling up inside her, both fueled by and fueling the energy that was pent up inside her. Even so, in the midst of that chaos, she had an idea.
"Okay, okay," she said quickly, her voice shaking from what sounded like fear but was really the effort of controlling the energy. "I'll go with you, just don't hurt my friends."
"Good decision," Lewis said with a smile as two other soldiers came up and escorted her away from her friends.
She looked over her shoulder at Zydane, and flicked her eyebrows a couple of times, the usual sign that she was going to use her powers. Zydane's face was confused for a few moments, and then his eyes went wide, and he repeated the gesture, saying that he'd use his powers as well.
Half way across the cemetery, Alexia gathered up all the energy she could hold, allowed it to fill her hands, and then screamed "NOW ZYDANE!" as she aimed one hand forward at the cars, and one hand behind her, willing the energy to flow to the men at the mouth of the snowmobile trail.
Her veins were on fire, as were her hands, energy flowing madly through her body and out. It hit the car, and instantly the vehicle burst into a shower of flames and scrap metal. She could feel the ecstasy of the heat and the light twisting and blowing about her, but she was loosing it, it was getting weaker, and so were her knees. Now there was no fire in her veins or extreme pleasure around her, only a burning, pounding sensation in her hands, and a dizziness in her head. She sank to her knees as the world became a blur. Something foul smelling was smoldering on either side of her, and there was a large fire ball somewhere in front of her, but her eyes wouldn't focus, and she was more interested in sleep at the moment to really care about any type of energy. The darkness beckoned her, and she willingly allowed it to take over her brain
-------------------------------
As soon as Alexia had screamed his name, Zydane kicked his power into high gear, forming an invisible dome-shaped shield around himself, Luke, Kurt, and the dirt bikes. He watched as blinding light shot from Alexia's hands and filled the area around the cars in front of them. The cars exploded, and the people standing around them were engulfed in the flames. The men on either side of Alexia were caught in a seeming overflow of energy, and Zydane had to close his eyes so that he wouldn't loose his concentration on the shield by watching them burn. A stream of energy had also fired from her other hand and had twisted through the air, hitting the motorcycles behind them, with similar results. The boys were protected by Zydane's force field, but he was quickly being drained of his own energy by trying to uphold it, and so he was thankful when Alexia finally collapsed to her knees and stopped releasing energy.
Zydane let the force field down and raced over to where Alexia had just fallen over onto her side.
"Alex!" he cried, rolling the girl over, trying to ignore the charred remains on either side of her. "Alex! Wake up! Are you ok?"
Alexia was unconscious, but after a few short, sharp slaps on the cheek, she came around. "Uhhhnn...Zydane? Wha...Is Luke alright?" she tried to sit up, but Zydane could see that she was too weak.
"Shhh. He's still alive, but he's bleeding pretty badly. We need to get him to the hospital."
Alexia's eyes were open all the way now, and could tell from the temperature in the air around him that she was using her powers again already to supply herself with energy.
She shook her head. "We can't go to the hospital, too much explanation would be needed." She pushed herself to a sitting position awkwardly, using the backs of her hands because her palms were red and blistering. "We need to go back to the Institute. They're after me, and that's the only place I'd be safe. And we have an infirmary there. I think I could cauterize his wound so that it won't bleed." She added after a moment's thought.
"You shouldn't use your powers, Alex. You're too weak."
"Weak, shmeak," she said, standing and walking over the where Kurt was crouched next to Luke, oblivious to the destruction around her. "The only reason people get weak is because they loose energy. I don't have to get weak if I don't want to."
"I think the bullet came out," Kurt said, pointing to Luke's shoulder.
Zydane nodded. There was a hole on either side of Luke's shirt, and both were surrounded by dark blood. Either Luke had been lucky and the bullet had only passed through his flesh, or it had gone right through a bone.
"Luke, I'm going to make the bleeding stop so that you can come with us to the Institute. Just hold still."
Luke nodded, his face white from both pain and the loose of blood. Alexia carefully put one hand on either side of his shoulder, leaving about an inch of space between each hand and the shoulder. A bright white filled the spaces left, and Luke cried out at the heat. But Alexia was done very quickly, and when she pulled away, Luke could see the wound had a thick scab or protective coating over it. It wasn't bleeding.
Luke rested for a few minutes, and then struggled to his feet. He had lost a fair amount of blood, but he would be better for now.
"I think I can hang onto to you on the bike, Zydane," he said, gingerly flexing his arms to see how well his shoulder could take it.
"We have to risk it," Alexia said before Zydane could argue the illogic of the plan. "It's only a three hour drive or so to the mansion. And the farther we get before we absolutely need help, the better."
"Ve already need absolute help," Kurt mumbled, and winced when Alexia threw him a dirty look. "Vell, ve do!"
*.. * are toughts ***
*Go, go, go! * Alexia willed her bike to go faster as she tried to escape the car. Even though she had left before Zydane, and had turned instead of going straight, the car had followed her. *What the heck do these people want? Why are they after us? What did we do? *
Kurt hugged her tightly around the waist, making it uncomfortable to breathe. Taking one hand off the handlebars, she tried to loosen his grip. He seemed very reluctant to do so, and just hugged her tighter. She struggled to move his arms, and finally she managed to do so by shoving her hand between her side and his arm and used it like a crow bar to pry his arms away a little. His grip loosened, but was still fairly tight.
Alexia made a bold move by taking her eyes off the road and glancing behind them around Kurt's body. The car was still following, gaining on them. It was no more than a hundred feet behind them. The man was no longer leaning out the window, but Alexia knew that if they caught up with her and Kurt, that they would use the gun.
Thinking quickly, Alexia turned onto a snowmobile trail road that she and her friends used as a short cut to the cemetery. The car wouldn't be able to follow, and perhaps she would be able to loose it.
Tree branches whipped at her head and more than once she had to duck to avoid having her head taken off. Sunlight filtered through the trees brighter than it had when they had left the Bungalow earlier that morning. She wondered how it was possible that twenty-four hours before her only concern was when Zydane would be done with work so she would be able to go trailing. She had had enough trailing in the past twelve hours to satisfy her for the next twelve years.
Alexia's bike finally broke through the line of trees and into the clearing where the cemetery was. There was a road across the cemetery from where they had entered, and she drove her bike across the unkempt area next to a large tombstone at the front of the cemetery. She parked her dirt bike and motioned for Kurt to get off the bike. He did so, and she swung off herself and pried off her helmet.
"What time is it?" she asked, wiping the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand.
Kurt looked at his watch. "9:15. Ve left the bungalow at five thirty or so this morning."
Alexia nodded. "What are we going to do, Kurt? These people are out to kill us...I bet that's what Zydane saw in the woods...I bet someone was dead, and he didn't want me to see."
"Who vould vant to hurt you all? Vhat did you ever do to anybody?"
"I don't know, Kurt. I wish I did. People can be so dumb sometimes." Her ears pricked up as the sound of a motor reached them. She quickly pushed her bike behind the huge headstone and then ducked in the tall grass behind it herself, pulling Kurt down with her.
The motor sound got louder, and Alexia peered out of their hiding stop to see who it was. She sighed, relieved, when she saw it was Zydane and Luke, and stood and waved at them.
Zydane pulled up next to the tombstone and parked, but did not turn off his bike. He shoved the visor on his helmet up and Alexia saw fear in his eyes. "There are more! They came outta nowhere and followed us. I couldn't get them off my tail. I think I lost them finally, but not for long. We have to get out of here."
"Too late," Luke said grimly. "Listen."
They stretched their ears, and at first they didn't hear anything but only a few moments later, Alexia could hear a high-power car engine heading towards them. She pulled on her helmet and jumped onto her bike, followed by Kurt, and desperately started her bike, giving it as much throttle as possible as soon as it had started, and headed for the snowmobile trail.
Before they reached the trail, two motorcycles appeared at its mouth, blocking her progress.
Alexia slammed her bike into a hard right turn, trying to avoid the motor and just barely missed crashing her bike into a tombstone. Zydane had already turned and was heading to the main entrance, but a car and a few more motorcycles blocked that exit as well.
Alexia's heart thumped hard against her rib cage. Their escape routes were both cut off, and their captors had guns.
Alexia stopped her bike halfway through the cemetery. Behind her were the motorcycles on the trail, and in front of her were the cars on the road.
"HALT! TURN OFF YOUR VEHICLES OR SOMEONE GETS HURT!" shouted a man that had gotten out of the car and was aiming a gun at Zydane, who had pulled up next to Alexia. The teenagers exchanged glances, and out of the corner of her eye, Alexia saw several more guns raised and cocked. She turned off her bike, and Zydane followed suit.
"GET OFF YOUR VEHICLES AND KEEP YOUR HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM! PASSENGERS FIRST!"
Kurt and Luke carefully dismounted, breathing hard and nervously. They raised their hands above their heads, keeping their helmets on.
The man then ordered Alexia and Zydane to dismount, and they complied.
"REMOVE YOUR HELMETS!"
Alexia yanked off her helmet and immediately was aware of all the energy racing around her head. Her nerves caused her to become a bigger conductor of the energy, and she felt the air around her grow cold.
The guns stayed pointed at them as another man got out of one of the cars and began to walk towards them. He was tall, with crew cut hair and piercing blue eyes...
Alexia jerked when she realized that this was the man she had given directions to the day before on the road. She had known he hadn't been out for just a casual walk.
As he approached them she made a move to throw her helmet at him, but he was a quick study and said instantly, "I wouldn't throw that if I were you, Miss Tambor. I understand you have a deep affection for all three young men here. It would be very traumatic for you were they to die because of a single reckless act from you."
Alexia stopped in mid-movement and allowed her arm to drop. Her brain was moving fast, and she could tell from Zydane's body language that his mind was racing too.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice more violent than she intended. "What do you want with us?"
"I am Lieutenant Lewis, and I don't want anything from you. In fact, I don't want all of you," he said, stopping about ten feet away from them. "Just you, Miss Tambor...my orders are to retrieve you, Mutant 777, by way of any means."
"You're not getting her," Zydane hissed through clenched teeth. "Over my dead body."
Lewis smiled. "Oh, but you see, we know that your body is only useful to us if you're alive." He turned to Alexia as all the guns shifted, aimed right at Zydane. "Either come quietly, or this will be your beloved Zy's permanent resting place."
"You wouldn't dare," Alexia growled, hiding her fear exceptionally well with anger and defiance.
"No?" Lewis asked, smiling benignly. "Elstore, show her we mean business."
A shot rang out from behind Alexia and Luke suddenly fell to the ground, crying out in pain and clutching at his right shoulder.
Alexia's eyes went wide. Her brother had just been shot. They had just shot her brother. He was bleeding, and she saw tears rolling down his cheeks for the first time since their father had died. *This can't be happening,* she thought.
"Unless you would like a further example of our seriousness, I advise you to comply."
Alexia's head wasn't working straight. Her terror and anger was welling up inside her, both fueled by and fueling the energy that was pent up inside her. Even so, in the midst of that chaos, she had an idea.
"Okay, okay," she said quickly, her voice shaking from what sounded like fear but was really the effort of controlling the energy. "I'll go with you, just don't hurt my friends."
"Good decision," Lewis said with a smile as two other soldiers came up and escorted her away from her friends.
She looked over her shoulder at Zydane, and flicked her eyebrows a couple of times, the usual sign that she was going to use her powers. Zydane's face was confused for a few moments, and then his eyes went wide, and he repeated the gesture, saying that he'd use his powers as well.
Half way across the cemetery, Alexia gathered up all the energy she could hold, allowed it to fill her hands, and then screamed "NOW ZYDANE!" as she aimed one hand forward at the cars, and one hand behind her, willing the energy to flow to the men at the mouth of the snowmobile trail.
Her veins were on fire, as were her hands, energy flowing madly through her body and out. It hit the car, and instantly the vehicle burst into a shower of flames and scrap metal. She could feel the ecstasy of the heat and the light twisting and blowing about her, but she was loosing it, it was getting weaker, and so were her knees. Now there was no fire in her veins or extreme pleasure around her, only a burning, pounding sensation in her hands, and a dizziness in her head. She sank to her knees as the world became a blur. Something foul smelling was smoldering on either side of her, and there was a large fire ball somewhere in front of her, but her eyes wouldn't focus, and she was more interested in sleep at the moment to really care about any type of energy. The darkness beckoned her, and she willingly allowed it to take over her brain
-------------------------------
As soon as Alexia had screamed his name, Zydane kicked his power into high gear, forming an invisible dome-shaped shield around himself, Luke, Kurt, and the dirt bikes. He watched as blinding light shot from Alexia's hands and filled the area around the cars in front of them. The cars exploded, and the people standing around them were engulfed in the flames. The men on either side of Alexia were caught in a seeming overflow of energy, and Zydane had to close his eyes so that he wouldn't loose his concentration on the shield by watching them burn. A stream of energy had also fired from her other hand and had twisted through the air, hitting the motorcycles behind them, with similar results. The boys were protected by Zydane's force field, but he was quickly being drained of his own energy by trying to uphold it, and so he was thankful when Alexia finally collapsed to her knees and stopped releasing energy.
Zydane let the force field down and raced over to where Alexia had just fallen over onto her side.
"Alex!" he cried, rolling the girl over, trying to ignore the charred remains on either side of her. "Alex! Wake up! Are you ok?"
Alexia was unconscious, but after a few short, sharp slaps on the cheek, she came around. "Uhhhnn...Zydane? Wha...Is Luke alright?" she tried to sit up, but Zydane could see that she was too weak.
"Shhh. He's still alive, but he's bleeding pretty badly. We need to get him to the hospital."
Alexia's eyes were open all the way now, and could tell from the temperature in the air around him that she was using her powers again already to supply herself with energy.
She shook her head. "We can't go to the hospital, too much explanation would be needed." She pushed herself to a sitting position awkwardly, using the backs of her hands because her palms were red and blistering. "We need to go back to the Institute. They're after me, and that's the only place I'd be safe. And we have an infirmary there. I think I could cauterize his wound so that it won't bleed." She added after a moment's thought.
"You shouldn't use your powers, Alex. You're too weak."
"Weak, shmeak," she said, standing and walking over the where Kurt was crouched next to Luke, oblivious to the destruction around her. "The only reason people get weak is because they loose energy. I don't have to get weak if I don't want to."
"I think the bullet came out," Kurt said, pointing to Luke's shoulder.
Zydane nodded. There was a hole on either side of Luke's shirt, and both were surrounded by dark blood. Either Luke had been lucky and the bullet had only passed through his flesh, or it had gone right through a bone.
"Luke, I'm going to make the bleeding stop so that you can come with us to the Institute. Just hold still."
Luke nodded, his face white from both pain and the loose of blood. Alexia carefully put one hand on either side of his shoulder, leaving about an inch of space between each hand and the shoulder. A bright white filled the spaces left, and Luke cried out at the heat. But Alexia was done very quickly, and when she pulled away, Luke could see the wound had a thick scab or protective coating over it. It wasn't bleeding.
Luke rested for a few minutes, and then struggled to his feet. He had lost a fair amount of blood, but he would be better for now.
"I think I can hang onto to you on the bike, Zydane," he said, gingerly flexing his arms to see how well his shoulder could take it.
"We have to risk it," Alexia said before Zydane could argue the illogic of the plan. "It's only a three hour drive or so to the mansion. And the farther we get before we absolutely need help, the better."
"Ve already need absolute help," Kurt mumbled, and winced when Alexia threw him a dirty look. "Vell, ve do!"