DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Mutant X'. They're not
my property. They belong to Tribune Entertainment.
***
*********
Shalimar awoke to a quiet buzzing sound. Her skin had rescued itself from the flaming tongues of the drug and was now recovering, and healing the scorched wounds and deeper fiery bite marks. The heated wind that flew weakly though her however, was not distinguished and its warm traces forbid the small ounces of sweat to dry from the primal layers of the skin. She gathered in a large amount of air but the intensity of oxygen only fueled the weakened fiery lines which caused her muscles to tense painfully while her eyes shut tightly to try and diminish the burning effect. No more deep breaths, at least not for now.
When she could safely breathe again and her heart returned steadily to its normal pace, Shalimar opened her eyes to locate the source of the annoying buzzing sound. It had been a small green generator only three feet away from where she lay. "Wait 'till I get my hands on you, you creeps!" the voice inside her screamed. Immediately she was intercepted with the sensation that her hands could not move at all. She could not lower her head to see the reason for such restriction but the sensors on her wrists were giving indications of tight and although soft, still incredibly pressuring straps. Those would leave some ugly marks if she managed to free herself again.
The previous attempt of freedom had been floating away from her raw memory and she was only left with the repetitive visual acknowledgement of her 'new home'. The bright pale lights tucked in the narrow vertical pipes above her provided the room with the needed artificial light but not a very welcoming one to the Feral. She could barely describe the composure of the ceiling to herself due to the unhealthy flashing of the light into her eyes, leaving her to only notice the glass walls around her.
Shalimar became aware that she was the only living thing in this room with the generator as the single companion close to her. She had lost count of the days which she wasted here and it worried her even with the attempt to try and uselessly recalculate the months perhaps, let alone the tiny or extremely long days. A few thin drops of saliva streamed down her throat as she closed her eyes and began whispering incoherent sentences to herself. It surely could not be years, although everything seemed slow and timelessly forgotten in this room. The torturous length of time even caused a piece of gratitude inside her towards those moments when her senses would abandon the platforms of consciousness and dive into the deeper water of the unconsciousness.
Luckily, the injection of the drug had been done through spraying to certain areas of her skin, otherwise had it been done with needles, her entire body, or at least the majority of it would give out the impression of a frequent visitor to acupuncture.
Her brain started acquiring the presence of some soft constructions of an unknown area inside it. The itching and silent throbbing injected another unfriendly flow of heat through her. The river halted the repairs of her previously caused wounds and the intensity of the 'water' messed with the sensitivity of her skin and her mind started structuring a thick, hard pressure inside Shalimar. The walls of the pressure kept building up as she struggled physically to fight away the strong effect but it did nothing to help; when the final brick was laid down, the fumes of the quiet torture reached her lips, forcing them to open and for Shalimar to release the pain in a loud, excruciating scream.
The waves of the yell were strong and loud but they could not reach anyone's ears beyond the thick, special walls that have been designed to absorb every sound and release only deafness to the outside.
*********
"I wish it could have been different. All four of you have been the most important people in my life. But it isn't right for the parents to outlive their children, is it. Goodbye." With a heavy heart, Adam pressed the small red button on the miniature laptop. A disk with the size of a coin slid out from the body of the small machine. Adam took the still warm disk and placed it in a plastic case.
The silence thickened mockingly around him from the fist day since he'd been placed permanently in this dreaded cell. Although he'd been provided regularly with nourishment, he had no communication with anyone else apart from the seldom visits from Felicia. How long had he been in here? Three months? The shortness of that indication of time was easily replaced with something longer by his mind. He was thrown in here as punishment. But could he really just stand aside and be an emotionless witness to the torture that these innocent young people have been subjected to? Anyone with at least an ounce of feeling would step away from that robotic cruelty and grab onto an opportunity for reversing.
"You will assist me and by no means will you attempt to do otherwise and interfere with the experiment by damaging it," she had told him when he had awoken in a shallowly dark room so many months before. Threats and blackmailing have been a human trait for many decades and rarely have the trepidation and seriousness wrapped around the consequences failed. They would be used as guinea pigs, worthless or perhaps not, pieces of flesh, blood and genes for experiments, that's what he had been told. His assistance had been required not only because of his scientific genius but because of the emotional connection he had with Emma, Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan.
Adam pressed his eyelids as painfully as he could against his eyes. His heart took out sufficient amount of blood in its own way, away from him to weaken him as a reminder of the heavy decision this man had made such a long time before. They would not be permanently or severely harmed if he'd collaborated - he had been told - and that would assure their survival. However, had he dared to go astray from the agreement and give aid to the mutants, it wouldn't be he who would suffer terribly as a result but them instead. The punishment would go to such length as death, regardless of the experiment's importance. They attacked him bloodlessly but effectively with that and he had to join them despite the burdening side-effects of the choice.
Much changed when the senseless suffering of the Feral reached a deep spot inside him, giving incredibly little tolerance to the experiment. He had the technology as a 'partner' in the experiment and he used it to create some sort of antidote for the poisons drug that ran through Shalimar's blood. He took the window of opportunity to step inside the room when it had been absent from any of the staff on that Monday evening.
Weak light was draped over the Feral's sleeping body when he approached the restraining bed. The emotional bruising from the constant trials of drugs and anti-drugs was shown visibly on the fallen, older, lines on her face. Shalimar always looked older than her years; Adam didn't know whether that had been positive or negative but right now the premature aging painted a tormented, sad image of her. The silence and close understanding of the moment created a wish for the scientist to remain motionless and simply observe the Feral in peace. The alertness, however, did not leave him and the importance of him acting quickly if he did not want to be detected here, occurred. Quickly, he injected the hopeful antidote in her arm. When he was done, Adam brushed his hand against her forehead and hurried back.
There was hope about this; there was surprising hope of a recovery. But then something went wrong. Shalimar started getting worse instead of better. The panicked puzzlement left him little room to calculate the possible errors quickly. He was certain that every ingredient that he placed in the formula was correct and in the right amount; he ran through the formula many times in secret before finally attempting the materialization of the antidote. It was far from clear to him as to why it had happened and instead he was brought down by heavier guilt and in this cell as a permanent prisoner.
The silence thickened with such volume that Adam could not hear any longer. Perhaps his old age was giving a way for the loss of hearing or perhaps it was simply the isolation. Adam did not know which one was the reason nor did he truly care as he lay down on the bed.
The material beneath him was soft but to him the cotton was substituted by irritating needles to which he had somehow gotten used to with time. The walls were enclosed with such a depressing nuance of red that in times when he would temporarily abandon his faithful theoretical, scientific thinking, Adam had wondered if it was possible this to be only paint. He thought about Jesse and Brennan. At least they would be alright in some way. Felicia had little use for them and their termination had been questioned several times but they would be alright, Adam was certain.
What about Emma? She was special to Felicia, he had seen that on the old woman's face. But because she was special, the Psionic had endured the biggest assault of them all... on her mind. The tricks, the illusions, the small spikes of the yellow virus which dug deep inside her brain, her consciousness to explore the roots of her mutations and play with them, exploit them, harassing the young woman without any awareness from her side.
Every event was placed in reality in Emma's eyes. The separation, the deaths. everything appeared concrete and irreplaceable by fantasy. She was emotionally tortured without a known cure and "all in the name of science," as Felicia had put it. The controlling virus had embedded its mark in deep corridors of her brain, leaving the traumas and painful 'memories' as parts of her psyche now.
If she remained alive, would she be able to survive the aftermath on her brain after this? His eyes flew quickly over to the small bottle filled with colorless, sweet liquid and hidden behind the desk. Maybe. She could... but it could not be rid of uncertainty.
Lately, everything felt uncertain. Everything abandoned the solid ground of assurance... everything except one thing. Adam's eyes took in the darkness once more as he sighed almost tearfully. He let them down; each and every one of his beloved children. He had betrayed them. Payback for hidden ignorance or overwhelming protection.
*********
Felicia crossed her arms while her right hip leaned against the doorframe. "She's resting?"
"Yes, her vital signs are all stable," one of the men responded.
"Good. Can you distinguish the source?"
Touching three buttons drawn on the console, it brought up a screen. "It's a man, but..." he touched another button. "I'm getting constant interruptions for a clearer view but it is definitely one of the other two specimens."
"The Molecular and Elemental?"
"Yes." The man touched two more buttons. "Wait... ah, here," he moved away from the screen for Felicia to have a better view.
The woman's face got closer to the screen as she observed the clearing up of the person's image. A newbie smile stretched across her face as a result. "Well, well..." she pressed her lips and returned her upward position. "Maybe he could be of some use to us after all..." and nodded expectantly.
***
*********
Shalimar awoke to a quiet buzzing sound. Her skin had rescued itself from the flaming tongues of the drug and was now recovering, and healing the scorched wounds and deeper fiery bite marks. The heated wind that flew weakly though her however, was not distinguished and its warm traces forbid the small ounces of sweat to dry from the primal layers of the skin. She gathered in a large amount of air but the intensity of oxygen only fueled the weakened fiery lines which caused her muscles to tense painfully while her eyes shut tightly to try and diminish the burning effect. No more deep breaths, at least not for now.
When she could safely breathe again and her heart returned steadily to its normal pace, Shalimar opened her eyes to locate the source of the annoying buzzing sound. It had been a small green generator only three feet away from where she lay. "Wait 'till I get my hands on you, you creeps!" the voice inside her screamed. Immediately she was intercepted with the sensation that her hands could not move at all. She could not lower her head to see the reason for such restriction but the sensors on her wrists were giving indications of tight and although soft, still incredibly pressuring straps. Those would leave some ugly marks if she managed to free herself again.
The previous attempt of freedom had been floating away from her raw memory and she was only left with the repetitive visual acknowledgement of her 'new home'. The bright pale lights tucked in the narrow vertical pipes above her provided the room with the needed artificial light but not a very welcoming one to the Feral. She could barely describe the composure of the ceiling to herself due to the unhealthy flashing of the light into her eyes, leaving her to only notice the glass walls around her.
Shalimar became aware that she was the only living thing in this room with the generator as the single companion close to her. She had lost count of the days which she wasted here and it worried her even with the attempt to try and uselessly recalculate the months perhaps, let alone the tiny or extremely long days. A few thin drops of saliva streamed down her throat as she closed her eyes and began whispering incoherent sentences to herself. It surely could not be years, although everything seemed slow and timelessly forgotten in this room. The torturous length of time even caused a piece of gratitude inside her towards those moments when her senses would abandon the platforms of consciousness and dive into the deeper water of the unconsciousness.
Luckily, the injection of the drug had been done through spraying to certain areas of her skin, otherwise had it been done with needles, her entire body, or at least the majority of it would give out the impression of a frequent visitor to acupuncture.
Her brain started acquiring the presence of some soft constructions of an unknown area inside it. The itching and silent throbbing injected another unfriendly flow of heat through her. The river halted the repairs of her previously caused wounds and the intensity of the 'water' messed with the sensitivity of her skin and her mind started structuring a thick, hard pressure inside Shalimar. The walls of the pressure kept building up as she struggled physically to fight away the strong effect but it did nothing to help; when the final brick was laid down, the fumes of the quiet torture reached her lips, forcing them to open and for Shalimar to release the pain in a loud, excruciating scream.
The waves of the yell were strong and loud but they could not reach anyone's ears beyond the thick, special walls that have been designed to absorb every sound and release only deafness to the outside.
*********
"I wish it could have been different. All four of you have been the most important people in my life. But it isn't right for the parents to outlive their children, is it. Goodbye." With a heavy heart, Adam pressed the small red button on the miniature laptop. A disk with the size of a coin slid out from the body of the small machine. Adam took the still warm disk and placed it in a plastic case.
The silence thickened mockingly around him from the fist day since he'd been placed permanently in this dreaded cell. Although he'd been provided regularly with nourishment, he had no communication with anyone else apart from the seldom visits from Felicia. How long had he been in here? Three months? The shortness of that indication of time was easily replaced with something longer by his mind. He was thrown in here as punishment. But could he really just stand aside and be an emotionless witness to the torture that these innocent young people have been subjected to? Anyone with at least an ounce of feeling would step away from that robotic cruelty and grab onto an opportunity for reversing.
"You will assist me and by no means will you attempt to do otherwise and interfere with the experiment by damaging it," she had told him when he had awoken in a shallowly dark room so many months before. Threats and blackmailing have been a human trait for many decades and rarely have the trepidation and seriousness wrapped around the consequences failed. They would be used as guinea pigs, worthless or perhaps not, pieces of flesh, blood and genes for experiments, that's what he had been told. His assistance had been required not only because of his scientific genius but because of the emotional connection he had with Emma, Jesse, Shalimar and Brennan.
Adam pressed his eyelids as painfully as he could against his eyes. His heart took out sufficient amount of blood in its own way, away from him to weaken him as a reminder of the heavy decision this man had made such a long time before. They would not be permanently or severely harmed if he'd collaborated - he had been told - and that would assure their survival. However, had he dared to go astray from the agreement and give aid to the mutants, it wouldn't be he who would suffer terribly as a result but them instead. The punishment would go to such length as death, regardless of the experiment's importance. They attacked him bloodlessly but effectively with that and he had to join them despite the burdening side-effects of the choice.
Much changed when the senseless suffering of the Feral reached a deep spot inside him, giving incredibly little tolerance to the experiment. He had the technology as a 'partner' in the experiment and he used it to create some sort of antidote for the poisons drug that ran through Shalimar's blood. He took the window of opportunity to step inside the room when it had been absent from any of the staff on that Monday evening.
Weak light was draped over the Feral's sleeping body when he approached the restraining bed. The emotional bruising from the constant trials of drugs and anti-drugs was shown visibly on the fallen, older, lines on her face. Shalimar always looked older than her years; Adam didn't know whether that had been positive or negative but right now the premature aging painted a tormented, sad image of her. The silence and close understanding of the moment created a wish for the scientist to remain motionless and simply observe the Feral in peace. The alertness, however, did not leave him and the importance of him acting quickly if he did not want to be detected here, occurred. Quickly, he injected the hopeful antidote in her arm. When he was done, Adam brushed his hand against her forehead and hurried back.
There was hope about this; there was surprising hope of a recovery. But then something went wrong. Shalimar started getting worse instead of better. The panicked puzzlement left him little room to calculate the possible errors quickly. He was certain that every ingredient that he placed in the formula was correct and in the right amount; he ran through the formula many times in secret before finally attempting the materialization of the antidote. It was far from clear to him as to why it had happened and instead he was brought down by heavier guilt and in this cell as a permanent prisoner.
The silence thickened with such volume that Adam could not hear any longer. Perhaps his old age was giving a way for the loss of hearing or perhaps it was simply the isolation. Adam did not know which one was the reason nor did he truly care as he lay down on the bed.
The material beneath him was soft but to him the cotton was substituted by irritating needles to which he had somehow gotten used to with time. The walls were enclosed with such a depressing nuance of red that in times when he would temporarily abandon his faithful theoretical, scientific thinking, Adam had wondered if it was possible this to be only paint. He thought about Jesse and Brennan. At least they would be alright in some way. Felicia had little use for them and their termination had been questioned several times but they would be alright, Adam was certain.
What about Emma? She was special to Felicia, he had seen that on the old woman's face. But because she was special, the Psionic had endured the biggest assault of them all... on her mind. The tricks, the illusions, the small spikes of the yellow virus which dug deep inside her brain, her consciousness to explore the roots of her mutations and play with them, exploit them, harassing the young woman without any awareness from her side.
Every event was placed in reality in Emma's eyes. The separation, the deaths. everything appeared concrete and irreplaceable by fantasy. She was emotionally tortured without a known cure and "all in the name of science," as Felicia had put it. The controlling virus had embedded its mark in deep corridors of her brain, leaving the traumas and painful 'memories' as parts of her psyche now.
If she remained alive, would she be able to survive the aftermath on her brain after this? His eyes flew quickly over to the small bottle filled with colorless, sweet liquid and hidden behind the desk. Maybe. She could... but it could not be rid of uncertainty.
Lately, everything felt uncertain. Everything abandoned the solid ground of assurance... everything except one thing. Adam's eyes took in the darkness once more as he sighed almost tearfully. He let them down; each and every one of his beloved children. He had betrayed them. Payback for hidden ignorance or overwhelming protection.
*********
Felicia crossed her arms while her right hip leaned against the doorframe. "She's resting?"
"Yes, her vital signs are all stable," one of the men responded.
"Good. Can you distinguish the source?"
Touching three buttons drawn on the console, it brought up a screen. "It's a man, but..." he touched another button. "I'm getting constant interruptions for a clearer view but it is definitely one of the other two specimens."
"The Molecular and Elemental?"
"Yes." The man touched two more buttons. "Wait... ah, here," he moved away from the screen for Felicia to have a better view.
The woman's face got closer to the screen as she observed the clearing up of the person's image. A newbie smile stretched across her face as a result. "Well, well..." she pressed her lips and returned her upward position. "Maybe he could be of some use to us after all..." and nodded expectantly.