Part XIII

AN: SO sorry for the wait everyone. This story got lost and forgotten for a while there.

As soon as the shots started flying Jesse was there, massed and covering as much of Sharon and the other two mutants as he could without splitting himself apart. Brennan pushed Eber further into the corner and reached around the pillar, letting out a stream of electricity. His first shot missed and he saw the male telepath fall at a shot from one of the gunss, a small feather sprouting from his shoulder assuring Brennan that they were using tranquillisers and not bullets. Brennan's second shot hit its target, racing along the metal walkway, throwing several people onto the floor below and knocking several more unconscious.

But more people were flooding in, abandoning the weapons in favour of hand-to-hand combat. The stealth mutant fell as a man rammed into him, knocking him head over heels and out of his stealth mode. A clean shot from another of the tranquilliser guns and he was out cold. Seeing this Brennan threw himself into the fight, Eber following close behind him.

Sharon had a lot of practice in using her psionic powers to protect herself against these people. They always and unerringly tried first to grab hold of her and she was thrown with them into their own memory room. By forcefully pushing one of their memories towards her attacker in this place they were propelled out of her mind and usually into unconsciousness or at the very least into disorientation. This method had already dispatched three would-be attackers, but she was tiring and it was taking more and more effort to push those memories away.

She looked up to find Jesse massed over her to deflect a punch, Eber holding her own against two men and three still forms being carried out of the door. She cried out, trying to warn the others that the mutants were being carried away, but two hands grabbed her arms and two more her shoulders and she was dragged back under, feeling as though she would drown in sheer exhaustion.

Eber saw four men take hold of Sharon and saw the dazed looked that covered their features as the froze in place, dragged into their own memory rooms. Knowing that Sharon wouldn't be able to cope with expelling four minds at once, Eber fought her way across the room towards her. Not hearing Brennan's shout of warning she reached out, touching Sharon's face to fall into the memory rooms with the others.

The four men stood at points around the room, each one only able to see his own memories circling around him and Sharon, who lay still on the floor as Eber stepped into the room. She, as Sharon, could see and feel the effects of the culmination of four minds worth of memories circling them. The wind that each memory caused as it rushed by. Each person's memory was represented differently, as squares, spheres, doorways or windows. Ignoring the activity around her Eber turned to Sharon, lifting her upright and cheering internally as she opened her eyes to look around her dazed.

"There's four of them." Eber said as Sharon's eyes widened at the sight. Taking her hand, Sharon was pulled onto her feet to face the four who all watched her warily, flinching every time a memory brushed past them. At least she didn't have to worry about following them through jumps, Sharon mused, it didn't seem to work when there was more than one of them.

"I've never done four before." She said, eyes still wide as she tried to watch them all at once.

"I'm here." Eber assured her. Nodding and taking hold of Eber's hand once more, Sharon took in one deep breath and then another, watching to see which memories in each of the four would respond to her. Targeting just those few that responded she breathed out, flinging her hands out wide, throwing the memories fast and hard out towards their owners. The men popped out of existance one by one, but instead of following their owners the memories flooded inwards, throwing Eber back and colliding with Sharon, filling her.

She opened her eyes to feel her mind buzzing with power. Eber lay beside her and it was Eber's memory room that she found surrounding her. Imposing as ever the wall in Eber's mind stood and the raw power of the memories inside of her called. She knew what to do.

Spilling their power from her like a ripple forming around a stone dropped in water she watched it flow from her. Four waves of pure power, one after the other, slammed in to the great wall and brick by brick it fell. And the memories, trapped behind it for so long, raced from their broken down prison and flooded back into Eber, back into their rightful home. Sharon fell to her knees, the power expended, and cried out, knowing what she had done.

And Hellen awoke