Somewhere I Belong

Chapter 15

Wolverine dropped down into the sewer, senses kicked into overdrive as he searched the darkness of the tunnel. With a BAMF, Nightcrawler was beside him while Shadowcat and Spyke climbed down the rest of the ladder.

"Which way is it, Spyke?" Nightcrawler asked as Logan started down the one-way tunnel.

"Down this tunnel, then to the right. There are a few more turns, but you guys won't get to come with me."

"Why's that?" Shadowcat asked as she hurried to catch up with the two boys.

"Morlocks don't trust anyone. They'd never allow me to bring you guys into the Alley with me. I'll have to go in alone."

"Like hell you will," Wolverine spoke up from infront of the three.

Spyke looked up at him. "Wolverine, I'll try to bring Caliban out with me, and you can talk to him then, but it's kinda like a rule. No outsiders."

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Shay was in and out for the next few hours, hearing bits and pieces of different conversations above her. Each time her eyes opened, they were assaulted with bright white light, restricting her vision, so she kept them closed as much as possible. Those, her ears were her only way to know what was going on around her. Her ears, and her pain.

They just kept coming back, taking her blood, her skin, her hair. Anything they could test or study, they stole from her. She felt someone pry her mouth up and taking a scraping from inside her cheek. They dropped her head back on the table and she heard fuzzy laughter. No pain though, seeing as how she still wore the helmet they'd put on her at the start of things.

Why did she still have it on? It was meant to restrict her vision, it didn't work too well, nor for her hearing…

Then suddenly, it hit her, where she'd seen a helmet almost exactly like it. Magneto, he'd worn a helmet to keep Xavier from reading his thoughts, from tracking him. Could these people know that? Was this to keep her from being found?

A soft moan came from Shay's throat. She really was screwed. She was going to be stuck here forever.

"Someone should clip those wings of hers," someone joked above her, his attention turning from the tray table to her.

"Get a pet-groomer in here. Those claws of hers are way took long to be house-broken," another voice laughed.

Shay's hands had clenched into fists, though still bound to the table beneath her. She strained against her metal restraints, causing the men in the room to shout. A stabbing pain jolted through her arm and her mind began to grow fuzzy just as she felt the metal across her wrist begin to bend slightly. She was so close, but she couldn't fight the coming darkness.

"God damn," one of the men in the room whistled as he studied the metal band across Shay's wrist. Her breathing was slow and shallow, a good sign the tranquilizer had already taken effect. "She almost had it."

"That was too damn close. I thought she didn't have any strength left," the other man muttered, pulling out a walkie-talkie from his pocket. He pressed a button and the speaker crackled to life. "This is Bryant in T-Room 18. I need better restraints in here, guys. This mutant almost freed itself. The strongest stuff you got, ok? We don't need any mistakes."

"Roger that," a scrambled voice came back through the radio.

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"Ok, this is it," Spyke said as he stopped in the middle of a long tunnel. "I'll be back." He turned to walk down the rest of the tunnel alone, but Wolverine's footsteps echoed behind him as he followed.

Spyke turned and looked at the older man. "You can't-" he began, but Wolverine stopped him.

"You ain't going alone, kid. Got it?" Without waiting for his reply, Wolverine started down the tunnel Spyke had been heading.

"Got it," Spyke said under his breath, trudging behind him.

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"That'll hold her. Won't get out of these cuffs."

"She better not, or it'll be your job."

"Hey, if she does, I'll fire myself. This is the strongest stuff we've got. If she gets out, she deserves it."

"Scalpel."

"More skin?"

"The last sample was contaminated."

"Are you sure? She is a mutant, it might have just been her skin."

"Well, a second test will prove that."

"Take another pint of blood."

"We just sent one down to processing an hour ago. Besides, I don't know how much more she can stand to lose right now. Give her a few hours."

"We don't have a few hours. Do it now."

In and out were Shay's thoughts, again, listening to the voices above her. Every once in awhile, they'd give her another tranquilizer, but it never seemed to overlap with the time they cut into her. She always felt that, the blade cutting her abdomen, the blood on her skin.

Deep in her mind, she was flashing back to her childhood, thoughts of her father in her mind. She knew this was ten times worse then what her father had ever done to her, but there were so many similarities.

After the first few hours past by, Shay's mind split, and half of her coward in a world far away from everything that was happening around her, while the other half was stuck fighting with her father over and over.

She was quickly losing her touch with the reality around her.

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Spyke took a few steps into the Alley, Shay's Morlockia, and looked around for a familiar face. Wolverine wasn't as cautious, as he moved through the Alley, eyes looking for the image of Callisto or Caliban he'd been shown.

"Evan!" someone shouted from down the Alley. It was Callisto, standing beside Leech, her right-hand mutant. She turned from the smaller boy to Evan, her eyes moving between Spyke and Wolverine. "What is this?"

"Callisto," Spyke began, but Wolverine finished for him. "We're looking for Caliban."

Callisto's face hardened. "I don't think you've been invited here." She looked at Evan. "Why have you brought outsiders here, Evan?"

"Callisto, I need your help. I need to see Caliban."

Looking at Evan, then Wolverine, Callisto shook her head. "I can't allow it. You've broken one of the most sacred rules, Evan. You've-"

Wolverine stepped towards the teenage mutant, his rage pretty apparent. "Listen, kid. We're going to see this Caliban or else."

"Or else?" Callisto laughed, an eerie smile on her face. "What can you-"

"What's going on?" a slow voice said from the side of the Alley. All three looked over, with Callisto giving a small 'oh' as Caliban stepped out into the light. Pale skin, like Shay's just not as silvery, gave Caliban an almost sickly look. Adding to that was the fact his head didn't hold a single hair. He stood tall, towering over the other mutants beside him.

Wolverine knew who it was from the picture, and took a step towards the pale mutant, but Callisto moved in front of him, obviously new to the world of Wolverine and his anger. She turned her back to him and looked at Caliban. "It's nothing."

Caliban shook his head. "I think not." He looked past both Callisto and Wolverine, to Evan. "You need my help?"

Evan nodded. "A girl, we need to you find her."

Caliban frowned. "Who?"

Callisto hung her head, answering for both Wolverine and Evan. "It's Shay, isn't it?"

Wolverine turned her around and grabbed the front of her shirt. "How did you know Shay's missing?"

Callisto struggled against his hold, eventually kicking him to let her go. "I had nothing to do with that!" She backed away from Wolverine, bumping into Caliban behind her. "I wouldn't want Shay hurt."

Wolverine's eyes narrowed on her, but he looked up to Caliban instead. "Can you find her?"

"Yes. Luckily, I know her signature well." He looked at Callisto for a second. "I was the one that found her before."

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"No, Daddy, please," Shay pleaded with her father, only six years old. She coward in the corner of her room, wings wrapped around herself for protection. Her tail was curled around her own leg, out of fright.

"Damn mutant child," her father slurred. "You're the reason she's dead!"

Tears in Shay's eyes stream down her cheeks, her breathing coming in small hiccups. "Please, I didn't do it, please," she cried over and over, but to no avail.

He stepped over her, a long black belt, one that Shay became very familiar with over those 15 years, held tightly in his hand. It was looped around his fist, stretching the leather tight. "You killed her, you little bitch."

Shay's screams went unnoticed by anyone, seeing as their house was set back farther from the others, a huge disadvantage for baby Shay. The leather cut into her silver skin, her red blood seeping out of her cuts and nose.

All this took place 12 years ago, but played again in Shay's mind as she was strapped to that table. She'd regressed to her childhood, a time where most children could find happy memories from their parents' love, but not for her. The pain she felt currently was shadowed by past suffering. On the outside, they continued to take her blood, her hair, even the marrow from her bones, to capture her healing mutation.

It was all in vain though, seeing as Shay's real mutation was one she solely could use. Hank McCoy knew this, from finishing her tests back at the lab beneath Xavier's School. He turned from his computer to the Professor, who was half listening to Hank, the other keeping tabs with Wolverine, Spyke, Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat.

"It's remarkable, Charles. Shay's entire body holds what these 'healing factors,' little stations where she produces this energy that, with contact from her hands, helps boost another's ability to heal."

Xavier lifted his head and stared at the blue beast. "These factors, are they in her blood?"

Hank looks back at his computer. "Yes, but not just there. They seem to be in every part of her. She's just currently using a few, like when she healed Kitty. Using only a few weakens her. Look here," he said as he brought up an image of the outline of a body. The image changed and showed small currents running out of the body. "As these energy boosters leave her body, empty pockets are created with are then filled by whatever is ailing the other person. She not only gives them a boost, but takes what hurts them."

Xavier thought more to himself then watching Hank's demonstration on the computer screen. "And only her hands will activate this?"

Hank nodded. "Yes. It seems the healing factors produce the energy, and deliver it directly to her hands, for later use."

"So no mater if they can re-produce these healing factors, they would need whatever it is that's in Shay's hands to activate it?"

"It seems so. Whatever tests they are doing to her are completely useless."

****Notes****

Hey, look at that! No real notes!