This will be the last update for a week, I'm going on holiday so won't be able to get to a computer anytime.
Thanks for the reviews. Please review more.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I know I promised you all action but I realized that there was something that needed to be told first.
Have a nice day.
***
Shalimar stalked through the doorway towards the computer. She couldn't believe this was happening. After losing Emma she couldn't lose Brennan and Jesse as well. Without even sitting down at the computer she looked at the screen, making sure that Adam was right. She practically ran towards the phone, hoping against all of her instincts that Brennan and Jesse had both simultaneously taken their com-links off.
Lexa ran in to find Shalimar frantically pressing the numbers on a mobile phone. She was struggling and couldn't seem to coordinate her hands with what her brain wanted to do. Lexa walked towards her as the phone went flying out of Shalimar's grasp. She bent down to pick it up but stopped with her hand mere inches away.
'Back off,' Shalimar growled. She had already pointed out that neither she nor her friends needed Lexa's help. She still didn't understand why Lexa wouldn't accept what was, in Shalimar's mind atleast a fact.
She grabbed the phone and this time managed to punch the number of Brennan's mobile into it. The phone was turned off and she was put straight through to the answer machine. She slammed her hand on the table and started tapping Jesse's number in instantly. There was ringing and Shalimar held her breath before puling the phone away from her ear. Her eyes glowed as she listened to the world around her.
Lexa's eyes grew wide as she saw Shalimar's feral state. She had never really seen a feral before, not one in action atleast. In fact she didn't really know a whole lot about other new mutants. She had spent so long trying to avoid having contact with anyone who knew anything about who she really was that she had lost touch with the new mutant world.
Shalimar shoved past her and ran down the hallway. She slid open Jesse's bedroom door and looked towards his bedside table. Her heart sank within her chest and tears sprang to her eyes. She switched her phone off and dropped it onto the bed. She had been determined ever since the explosion to not cry. She knew that she would never truly get over it all if she didn't allow herself the time to mourn, but she didn't want to seem weak. She had too many people relying on her to be strong, to be this stable rock that they could depend on. She was always the one who was cool and calm in a crisis.
She blinked away the tears and turned, only to find Lexa and Adam standing in the doorway.
'What do you want to do?' Adam asked.
After a minutes pause she replied. 'I wanna get my friends back.'
***
Jesse woke suddenly with a gasp. His head was pounding and his mouth was dry. There was a tingling sensation running along his back from the chair he was sitting in and had presumably been sitting in for quite some time. He slowly leant his head against the back of the metal chair and took in his surroundings. There was a glass wall in front of him and one to his left. To his right was a cabinet with shelves full of test tubes and cruel looking equipment.
Once Jesse was sure he had gathered enough strength, he breathed in deeply. He felt his body begin to phase out but something was wrong. A wave of pain washed over him and he leant over in agony. He sucked in deep draughts of air until the pain had subsided.
There was one good thing about the anguish he had just gone through. He now knew exactly where he was. Genomex was the only place where subdermal governors were a part of everyday procedure. He had always hated them and the pods. They had felt like too much of a restriction and he had hated his complete loss of liberty everytime he was subjected to that kind of treatment. He hadn't felt the kind of pain that a governor brought in years though, and hadn't been prepared. It took him a few minutes to get his breathing back under control, and stop his heart from beating its way out of his chest.
The team had lost track of Genomex after the explosion. They had been monitoring the situation for the past month but there had been next to no activity and every external problem had been designated a spot on the back burner while they all tried to get over everything that had happened. They had to have missed something or else Genomex was operating on different channels to the usual ones.
Jesse looked down at his ring finger, the one where his com-link could normally be found. It was gone and there was a pale band of skin on his tanned hand. He had guessed that Genomex would have done that much.
He wondered how Shalimar was getting on with Adam and Lexa. She was sensitive, more so than ever to intruders in her home. It wasn't necessarily a feral thing, though he figured that that obviously had some part to play. It was really just a Shalimar thing. She was protective of the people that she loved. Losing Emma had hit her where it hurt. She hadn't been able to protect her from the thing that killed her. And Jesse knew that until she got over her own guilt she wouldn't ever be able to move on.
***
'Mr. Mulwray, so nice to see that you have woken up in time to entertain your guests.'
Brennan looked up at the source of the voice. He had known where he was from the first moment of consciousness; Genomex was a place that stayed in your system for quite some time. Plus he had been through enough simulations to know what it looked like. He was unhappy to see that everything seemed to be back to working order after Gabriel's stay there.
'Mr. Mulwray,' the voice of Mason Eckhart snapped, displeased that he wasn't gaining 100% of Brennan's attention.
Brennan raised his eyebrows instantly. He loved pissing the bad guys off, especially Eckhart. It wasn't always such a good idea but it provided him with some fun before whatever it was that was coming came.
The corners of Mason's mouth lifted. He didn't smile often but he did so love when he had the upper hand, particularly when it was Mutant X who ended up being the underdogs. And now he had two of them. If they didn't know where the man he was looking for, and had been looking for for the past month was, then he could use them as bargaining chips.
'I wanted to come here personally to ask you a question before I have my people torture it out of you,' he said, side-stepping out of the way to give Brennan an excellent view of the equipment that was going to be used to do just that.
'And here I was thinking that you didn't care,' Brennan drawled back.
Eckhart shot Brennan a steely glare as he continued to talk. 'I want to know the location of a man.'
'Wow, I never pictured you as gay,' Brennan said. Insulting Eckhart was way too easy. Atleast Shalimar put up a real fight when they bantered.
'I'm looking for Nicholas Fox.' As soon as the words left his mouth he saw the change in his captive's demeanor. All the bravado, the confidence was gone. Suddenly he could see the pain in Brennan's eyes.
Brennan hated that Eckhart should be the one to uncover his weakness. It wasn't just what Nicholas had led the team into, it was what he had done to Shalimar. That was why she still blamed herself for Emma's death. He was her father, if anyone should have been able to stop him, to know what he was doing it should have been her. She was wrong of course but who was he to get something that momentous into Shalimar's head.
'I don't know, and I don't care,' replied Brennan, once again putting up his usually impenetrable exterior.
'Come now, Mr. Mulwray. This is the father of one of your teammates we're talking about. Surely you know something about where he's hiding out.'
Brennan looked Eckhart straight in the eye. No matter what Eckhart wanted to believe Brennan didn't actually know anything about Nicholas Fox. After the collapse of the building Mutant X had been too concerned with the disappearance of Adam and the obvious death of Emma. They hadn't given much thought to where Shalimar's dad had gone, or atleast Brennan hadn't. He wasn't so sure about Shalimar though. She went off hunting on her own so much, he had barely seen her in the past month. Where she had been going every night had remained a mystery to both him and Jesse. The problem was that Eckhart would never believe him. Brennan didn't like the look of the objects on the table that he had seen minutes before, but he really didn't have anything to say.
Thanks for the reviews. Please review more.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I know I promised you all action but I realized that there was something that needed to be told first.
Have a nice day.
***
Shalimar stalked through the doorway towards the computer. She couldn't believe this was happening. After losing Emma she couldn't lose Brennan and Jesse as well. Without even sitting down at the computer she looked at the screen, making sure that Adam was right. She practically ran towards the phone, hoping against all of her instincts that Brennan and Jesse had both simultaneously taken their com-links off.
Lexa ran in to find Shalimar frantically pressing the numbers on a mobile phone. She was struggling and couldn't seem to coordinate her hands with what her brain wanted to do. Lexa walked towards her as the phone went flying out of Shalimar's grasp. She bent down to pick it up but stopped with her hand mere inches away.
'Back off,' Shalimar growled. She had already pointed out that neither she nor her friends needed Lexa's help. She still didn't understand why Lexa wouldn't accept what was, in Shalimar's mind atleast a fact.
She grabbed the phone and this time managed to punch the number of Brennan's mobile into it. The phone was turned off and she was put straight through to the answer machine. She slammed her hand on the table and started tapping Jesse's number in instantly. There was ringing and Shalimar held her breath before puling the phone away from her ear. Her eyes glowed as she listened to the world around her.
Lexa's eyes grew wide as she saw Shalimar's feral state. She had never really seen a feral before, not one in action atleast. In fact she didn't really know a whole lot about other new mutants. She had spent so long trying to avoid having contact with anyone who knew anything about who she really was that she had lost touch with the new mutant world.
Shalimar shoved past her and ran down the hallway. She slid open Jesse's bedroom door and looked towards his bedside table. Her heart sank within her chest and tears sprang to her eyes. She switched her phone off and dropped it onto the bed. She had been determined ever since the explosion to not cry. She knew that she would never truly get over it all if she didn't allow herself the time to mourn, but she didn't want to seem weak. She had too many people relying on her to be strong, to be this stable rock that they could depend on. She was always the one who was cool and calm in a crisis.
She blinked away the tears and turned, only to find Lexa and Adam standing in the doorway.
'What do you want to do?' Adam asked.
After a minutes pause she replied. 'I wanna get my friends back.'
***
Jesse woke suddenly with a gasp. His head was pounding and his mouth was dry. There was a tingling sensation running along his back from the chair he was sitting in and had presumably been sitting in for quite some time. He slowly leant his head against the back of the metal chair and took in his surroundings. There was a glass wall in front of him and one to his left. To his right was a cabinet with shelves full of test tubes and cruel looking equipment.
Once Jesse was sure he had gathered enough strength, he breathed in deeply. He felt his body begin to phase out but something was wrong. A wave of pain washed over him and he leant over in agony. He sucked in deep draughts of air until the pain had subsided.
There was one good thing about the anguish he had just gone through. He now knew exactly where he was. Genomex was the only place where subdermal governors were a part of everyday procedure. He had always hated them and the pods. They had felt like too much of a restriction and he had hated his complete loss of liberty everytime he was subjected to that kind of treatment. He hadn't felt the kind of pain that a governor brought in years though, and hadn't been prepared. It took him a few minutes to get his breathing back under control, and stop his heart from beating its way out of his chest.
The team had lost track of Genomex after the explosion. They had been monitoring the situation for the past month but there had been next to no activity and every external problem had been designated a spot on the back burner while they all tried to get over everything that had happened. They had to have missed something or else Genomex was operating on different channels to the usual ones.
Jesse looked down at his ring finger, the one where his com-link could normally be found. It was gone and there was a pale band of skin on his tanned hand. He had guessed that Genomex would have done that much.
He wondered how Shalimar was getting on with Adam and Lexa. She was sensitive, more so than ever to intruders in her home. It wasn't necessarily a feral thing, though he figured that that obviously had some part to play. It was really just a Shalimar thing. She was protective of the people that she loved. Losing Emma had hit her where it hurt. She hadn't been able to protect her from the thing that killed her. And Jesse knew that until she got over her own guilt she wouldn't ever be able to move on.
***
'Mr. Mulwray, so nice to see that you have woken up in time to entertain your guests.'
Brennan looked up at the source of the voice. He had known where he was from the first moment of consciousness; Genomex was a place that stayed in your system for quite some time. Plus he had been through enough simulations to know what it looked like. He was unhappy to see that everything seemed to be back to working order after Gabriel's stay there.
'Mr. Mulwray,' the voice of Mason Eckhart snapped, displeased that he wasn't gaining 100% of Brennan's attention.
Brennan raised his eyebrows instantly. He loved pissing the bad guys off, especially Eckhart. It wasn't always such a good idea but it provided him with some fun before whatever it was that was coming came.
The corners of Mason's mouth lifted. He didn't smile often but he did so love when he had the upper hand, particularly when it was Mutant X who ended up being the underdogs. And now he had two of them. If they didn't know where the man he was looking for, and had been looking for for the past month was, then he could use them as bargaining chips.
'I wanted to come here personally to ask you a question before I have my people torture it out of you,' he said, side-stepping out of the way to give Brennan an excellent view of the equipment that was going to be used to do just that.
'And here I was thinking that you didn't care,' Brennan drawled back.
Eckhart shot Brennan a steely glare as he continued to talk. 'I want to know the location of a man.'
'Wow, I never pictured you as gay,' Brennan said. Insulting Eckhart was way too easy. Atleast Shalimar put up a real fight when they bantered.
'I'm looking for Nicholas Fox.' As soon as the words left his mouth he saw the change in his captive's demeanor. All the bravado, the confidence was gone. Suddenly he could see the pain in Brennan's eyes.
Brennan hated that Eckhart should be the one to uncover his weakness. It wasn't just what Nicholas had led the team into, it was what he had done to Shalimar. That was why she still blamed herself for Emma's death. He was her father, if anyone should have been able to stop him, to know what he was doing it should have been her. She was wrong of course but who was he to get something that momentous into Shalimar's head.
'I don't know, and I don't care,' replied Brennan, once again putting up his usually impenetrable exterior.
'Come now, Mr. Mulwray. This is the father of one of your teammates we're talking about. Surely you know something about where he's hiding out.'
Brennan looked Eckhart straight in the eye. No matter what Eckhart wanted to believe Brennan didn't actually know anything about Nicholas Fox. After the collapse of the building Mutant X had been too concerned with the disappearance of Adam and the obvious death of Emma. They hadn't given much thought to where Shalimar's dad had gone, or atleast Brennan hadn't. He wasn't so sure about Shalimar though. She went off hunting on her own so much, he had barely seen her in the past month. Where she had been going every night had remained a mystery to both him and Jesse. The problem was that Eckhart would never believe him. Brennan didn't like the look of the objects on the table that he had seen minutes before, but he really didn't have anything to say.