Disclaimer: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune Entertainment and don't belong to me. No copyright infringement is intended.
Episode 2: Vision Of Fear
"Go. I'll be right behind you," said Lisa Valentine.
"I'm not leaving you, Mom!" Josh said.
Then there was a loud BANG! A gunshot. Lisa Valentine fell to the ground right in front of Josh.
"No!" Josh shouted.
Everything around him started moving in circles. His vision blurred and he could barely see anything. The world seemed to be going round and round.
And then, just as abruptly as it began, it stopped. Everything came to a stand still. Josh looked around and found himself in some kind of laboratory. There were two autopsy tables in the centre of the room with a body lying on each one. The faces on the bodies looked all blurred. As he moved closer, he realized that the bodies lying on the autopsy tables were his parent's. He was grief stricken. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Suddenly he heard a gravely sounding laugh behind him. He turned around to see Colonel Patrick Roberts standing there, pointing a gun at him.
"Time to die," said Roberts and pulled the trigger.
The bullet seemed to be moving in slow motion. Josh tried to run, but he couldn't move. It was like he was paralysed. He couldn't move any part of his body. As the bullet came closer, he was filled with terror. It was inches away from his face and then it came rushing in.
"Nooo!" Josh sat up in his bed with a jerk. He was sweating. Shalimar and Emma were sitting right next to him on the side of the bed. They had sensed trouble and come to check on him.
"Sshh, it's okay," She said putting her arm around him and pulling him close. "You just had a bad dream. It's okay now."
"I...I saw m-my m-mom and dad," he said, his voice trembling.
He started sobbing. Shalimar pulled him close and kissed him lightly on the head. Emma began directing feelings of comfort towards the boy. The sobbing gradually stopped and he drifted back to sleep.
It had been four days since Josh had lost his parents. He had been having nightmares just like this every night.
"He'll be okay for tonight," said Emma as they left the room.
"He's been having these nightmares every night," said Shalimar. "I'm worried about him."
Emma nodded in agreement.
The next morning, Adam was working in the lab when Shalimar walked in.
"How's he doing?" asked Adam.
"Not too good," Shalimar replied. "He had another nightmare last night. Isn't there something you can do?"
"I wish there was. But, this isn't one of those things where I give him an antidote and he gets better. This is something he has to deal with on his own.
"Hi Josh!" said Emma.
"Hi Emma," Josh said in a sober tone.
"Did you get any sleep last night?"
"Not much. I...I don't know what to do. I can't stop these nightmares. It's..." He looked away.
"You wanna talk about it?" Emma asked.
He looked at her and started to shake his head, but she cut him off.
"You'll feel much better if you talk about it."
"Okay," Josh said.
They sat down on a couch.
"I see my parents, and they're dead," he said.
"And then I see him."
"Who?" Emma asked.
"Roberts," Josh said with a shudder.
"Are you afraid of him?"
Josh nodded his head.
"It's okay to be afraid," she said. "But you need to face your fears and beat them. That's the only way you can get over them."
"I can't," Josh said. "It's...It's too hard."
"You have to try," Emma said.
"Emma," Adam's voice came over the com. "I need you in the lab."
"I'll be right there," Emma replied. "You think about what I said, okay?" she told Josh.
The kid nodded his head.
"Hey kid!" Brennan said as he came up to them with Jesse behind him. "Come on, we're going to your house to pick up all your stuff."
"Okay," said Josh perking up.
Valentines' Residence"All right, go get your stuff," Brennan told Josh as they entered the house.
"Brennan," Jesse called in an apprehensive tone of voice.
"What?"
"We've got a slight problem. Come look at this.
Brennan walked over to the fireplace where Jesse was standing and looking intently at something.
"What is it?"
"A bug," said Jesse grimly. "No prizes for guessing who put it there."
"Robertson," Brennan said.
"That's right."
"Man! We should've known they'd have bugged the place," Brennan was livid.
"Josh, you'd better hurry it up. We're gonna have company," Jesse called out.
Josh had just finished packing his things. He looked at a picture on his desk and picked it up. It was a picture of him and his parents. A feeling of sadness washed over him.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Jesse shouted out that they were going to have company. Josh put the picture in his bag and started to leave the room.
Suddenly, something crashed through the window. It was a small canister and there was smoke coming out of it.
As he hurried outside into the living room another couple of smoke grenades crashed through the windows.
"We'd better get outta here," said Brennan.
The room started to fill with smoke and it was getting thicker by the second.
"Get down on the floor," Brennan said.
As they did, the front door burst open and some men dressed in commando gear and wearing gas masks rushed in.
Jesse crawled towards the wall in front of him and phased it.
"Come on," he said.
They made it out just as the commandos started firing.
"They are outside. Move in to intercept," said one of them into a com-link.
As the three of them headed for the helix, a couple of commandos came around the corner and started firing.
Jesse massed, pulling Josh behind him. Brennan charged up a tesla coil and hurled it at the two men knocking them down.
They reached the Helix just in time as about seven-eight commandos started shooting at them. Robertson was standing behind them, a disgusted look on his face as the Helix took off.
SanctuaryJosh was in his room, sitting on his bed. He was looking at a picture of his parents. A single tear rolled down his cheek. He placed the picture face down on a table next to his bed and then went to sleep.
"Go. I'll be right behind you," said Lisa Valentine.
"I'm not leaving you, Mom!" Josh said.
Then there was a loud BANG! A gunshot. Lisa Valentine fell to the ground right in front of Josh.
"No!" Josh shouted.
Just like before everything around him started moving in circles and his vision started to blur.
As everything stopped spinning, he looked around and found himself in the same laboratory. The two autopsy tables were there in the centre of the room with a body lying on each one. And like before the faces on the bodies were blurred. He moved closer and saw his parents' bodies and felt that same sickening feeling at the bottom of his stomach. He felt the grief all over again.
Suddenly he heard a familiar gravely sounding laugh behind him. He turned around to see Colonel Patrick Roberts standing there, pointing a gun at him.
"Time to die," said Roberts and pulled the trigger.
The bullet seemed to be moving in slow motion. Josh tried to run, but he couldn't move. It was like he was paralysed. He couldn't move any part of his body. The bullet came closer and closer until it was barely a couple of inches away from his face and then it stopped. Everything went black.
And suddenly he found himself at sanctuary.
"Josh!"
He turned around. It was Emma.
"You have to fight it," she said. "I know you can do it."
"I don't think I can," said Josh.
"You can do it," Emma said firmly.
Everything went black again and Josh then found himself standing in the laboratory again.
Again he heard that laugh and he turned around to see Colonel Patrick Roberts standing there, pointing a gun at him.
"I'm not afraid of you," said Josh, his eyes narrowing.
"Time to die," said Roberts.
But this time before he could pull the trigger, Josh swirled his hands around released a thermal charge.
The charge hit Robertson and he burst into flames, screaming.
Josh gave a huge sigh of relief as he watched Robertson burn to the ground.
And then...he woke up.
He sat up in bed and then looked at the clock. It was morning.
There was a knock at the door and Emma poked her head in.
"You awake?" she asked.
"Yeah," Josh replied. Then he smiled. "I did it!" he told her.
"I know," she said smiling. "Come on. We've got a surprise for you."
"What is it?" he asked.
"Come on," she said putting her arm on his shoulder as they left the room.
The rest of the team were standing by the Dojo. As they walked towards them, Adam pulled out a small box.
"This is for you," he said.
Josh opened the box. Inside it was a ring.
"Isn't this a com-ring?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
"That's right," said Adam.
Josh's eyes widened. "That means..."
"That you're now part of the team," Jesse finished for him.
"All Right!" Josh said with glee as Shalimar and Emma kissed him on the cheek.
"And here's your first assignment," said Brennan, handing him a broom. "Housekeeping."
He laughed and started running as josh ran after him, trying to whack him with the broom.
END OF EPISODE 2
I just thought up this episode and added it in between because it takes place between 'The Mutant Killer and ' Danger On Campus'