Chapter 13 New Mutants
A/N- Thanks again for the feedback and for hanging in there. I know this has been a long, twisted road. The casts have for the most part finally come together in one place and the inevitable confrontation with the Tribunal will soon occur (but not in this chapter). I love having these guys flirt with each other and I promise I'll never misspell Brennan Mulwray's name again. Really.
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"Chloe?" Lex called. "Are you all right?" The perky blond gazed at him and Helen silently. Her blue eyes had an odd, almost animal green fluorescence. She stared hard at them. Helen began to slowly float upward.
"HEY! Put me down." Helen shouted indignantly, getting everyone's attention.
An impish grin suddenly spread over Chloe's face. "I feel fine," she replied as she cheerfully complied with Dr. Bryce's demand.
Adam approached the small group still in the elevator. "How about we move ourselves to more comfortable quarters?" He gestured out toward the holding cell. "I think we all have pieces of the overall picture that we need to put together." When Lana and Chloe offered Clark a hand up he waved his friends away when their close proximity to him almost made him collapse.
"What's with him?" Lana murmured to Chloe.
"Stupid Male egos," he heard Chloe comment. Clark slowly shuffled out alone after them. Lex waved Helen on ahead of him and fell in step with Clark.
"Man, you look like hell! How are you holding up? Did they do something to you?" Lex looked concerned.
"I just feel a little nauseous," Clark replied, staring determinedly ahead. "I was fine until after they knocked us out. I don't know what they did to me. I feel so…weak."
Lex frowned. He hated it when he couldn't help his friends, especially Clark Kent. The bald young man stared thoughtfully at his younger friend. "Yeah, Shalimar discovered an implant in the back of her neck. She apparently got injected after they knocked us all out. I noticed that Brennan and Frank have them too. I don't have one." Lex shook his head. "Do you have one?"
Clark felt the back of his neck. Sure enough, at the base of his skull, under a swirl of hair, there was a circular implant. He frowned incredulously. How could they have possibly gotten that through my skin, he wondered silently, except that I've been overexposed to the meteor rock. "Is this what's making me sick?" he wondered aloud.
"Hey Queu," Lex called to his chief researcher, "Did you get an implant in the back of your neck?" The older man raised an eyebrow and felt the back of his neck. Queu/Eckhart feigned a stricken look.
"What is this device?" he exclaimed. "Are the captors branding their prey?"
Lex straddled a chair where he could see the expressions on everyone's faces, well, almost everyone. Helen stood behind him, hands gently kneeding his shoulders. He noted that Queu had placed himself in a similar strategic position. Queu liked watching people. Frank leaned against the wall, eyes closed, looking bored. Shalimar and Brennan stood closely side by side within each other's personal space, the backs of their hands nearly touching as they waited for everyone to quiet down. Clark hung back a couple feet away looking subdued, but was listening intently. He stole a look at the golden Feral who was at that moment looking up at Brennan with a playful smile. Clark glanced down and shrugged. Shalimar then looked straight at Clark. Catching his eye, she winked at him and nodded her head in the direction of Lana and Chloe. Clark broke out into a wide grin despite himself. Emma sat quietly on the floor, her expression tranquil while Adam paced restlessly, waiting for the conversation to die down. Jesse was still in deep conversation with Lana and Chloe.
"Shall we begin?" Adam asked loudly, commanding their attention. As they looked at Adam, Chloe's eyes fluoresced again.
"Chloe," Adam began-
"Yeah, yeah my eyes look strange," Chloe interrupted.
" You seem to have developed distinct telekinetic abilities," Adam continued. "Do you feel all right?"
"I feel fine. I love it." Chloe said. "I'd say this will be a definite plus in my journalistic endeavors." Lana rolled her eyes.
"We were exposed to an aerosol, apparently containing meteor rock components," Jesse said. "I developed super-human strength in the elevator while Lana and Dr. Bryce showed the same abilities a couple hours after we left the elevator." Jesse looked at Dr. Bryce, who smiled wryly.
"I have to attribute the delayed development to the larger amount of fatty tissue that resides in the mature female anatomy," she said with a smile. As Adam nodded in agreement, Mr. Queu listened in obvious fascination.
"So, can we assume that the powers will stay longer, if not permanently in women because of," Mr. Queu cleared his throat looking a little embarrassed, "your female physiology?"
"I hope there's no risk of cancer," Lana said hugging herself, while Dr. Bryce nodded at Mr. Queu in answer to his question.
As the older man's eyes met hers for a brief moment, Dr. Bryce started uneasily at the thoughtful, calculating expression in his eyes. She had never been sure that she liked this man that Lex was treating more and more like a surrogate father, now she wondered if the distrust was mutual. Mr. Queu glanced at Lex and nodded slightly at him. Not far away, Adam also noticed the unspoken dialog. With a sharp glance at the group, Adam said, "It is imperative that we catalog what we can and cannot do, if we hope to escape what the Tribunal has in store and prevail against them. No one is an island unto themselves. We must work as a team. To begin with, Lana, Dr. Bryce, and Jesse seem to have super-human strength. This will be a plus for us if they learn to control their abilities. Jesse, Brennan and Shalimar can work with them in basic defense and hand to hand combat techniques. Chloe has apparent telekinetic abilities. It would be appropriate for Emma and Frank to tutor her in the use of Psionic abilities.
"Frank has Psionic abilities?" Lex asked in surprise. "Did my father know about that?"
"Proprietary information, Mr. Luthor." Frank replied in his gravelly voice. "Government stuff, you know the route."
Lex gave Frank a hard look then turned to Clark. "Clark seems to still be suffering adverse effects from whatever experiments the Tribunal performed on him. I hope this is as temporary as Brennan and Frank's earlier condition and recovery." Lex looked back at Adam and added, "Helen briefed me on their condition."
"We were fortunate, Lex." Brennan said. "What if Clark's Non-Mutant physiology doesn't permit him to spring back like we did? What if they did something to him that has crippled him permanently?"
Emma added, "It appears that half of us are hobbled with Sub-dermal governors. I wonder why the Tribunal would install them on two normal people like Mr. Queu and Clark?"
"Sub-dermal governors?" Lex asked. "What are they?"
Adam took a deep breath. "As you know, New Mutants resulted from genetic experimentation done by a secret government project in an effort to find a cure for deadly diseases. Some of the New Mutants did not adapt socially to their new abilities and became dangerous to themselves and to others. The governors and other devices were invented to control these New Mutants."
As Chloe listened silently, taking mental notes, Lana chimed in, "Mr. Eckhart said that you invented the sub-dermal governors. I think they are horrible devices." She stared accusingly at him.
Adam gazed back, his dark eyes appraising the young woman. "Yes, I did." He answered quietly.
Lana's eyes filled with rage. "How can you claim to be an ethical scientist when you invent things that are designed to control others against their will?" She raised her fist slightly and slammed it down into the table she was standing beside. The table crumpled.
"Will I be the next thing your temper destroys with your superior strength? Is that what your new powers are doing to you?" Adam asked Lana quietly. Lana backed down, eyes glittering with tears.
"I'm not like that, Adam, please believe me," Lana answered in a quavery voice.
Adam looked at Lana, Chloe and Dr. Bryce. "You three have suddenly and unexpectedly come into some amazing gifts, presumably due to the Tribunal's manipulation of your bodies with meteor rock products. Although your enhanced abilities are similar to those who received treatments from a government program, I believe that the mode by which your bodies have changed is different. The Sub-dermal governors might not be effective in controlling your abilities, should they succeed in installing them on you. Your challenge will be to remember that you are still a member of human society and are still subject to society's rules. You are not gods. You must blend into a population of 'un-enhanced' humans." Adam looked searchingly at the three women, hoping to see agreement. Shalimar and Emma looked at them sympathetically.
The rest of the group had gathered around Adam as he spoke. "In answer to your comment, Lana, like so many other inventions," he said, "the sub-dermal governor was made with therapeutic intentions- to help New Mutants control their gifts while they adapted. Unfortunately, my work got into the hands of unscrupulous people like Mr. Eckhart who then used it to take advantage of and to control these gifted people." Adam's dark eyes were filled with pain and indignation as he nodded at Frank Thorne and the members of Mutant X. Looking at Lex, Adam said "I don't know why they put sub-dermal governors on Mr. Queu and Clark but not on you, me, Dr. Bryce, Lana and Chloe. They certainly had the opportunity. I could speculate that either they thought Mr. Queu and Clark were New Mutants and needed to be controlled," Adam shook his head and smiled briefly, "or perhaps the devices are different in function from the one I patented and if that's so, we're in for more surprises."
"We're normal humans, Dr. Kane," Mr. Queu said. "Perhaps Clark and I are designated as future experiments," he offered, rubbing at the back of his neck. "How do these things come off?" he asked.
Adam replied, "There's an electrical key that is used to unlock the device. Brennan has some talent in the area of unlocking these things.
"Adam," Brennan said, "Before you arrived, we were visited by a holographic Eckhart. Among other things, he released Jesse and me from the sub-dermal governors with a warning that any use of our powers will activate the second device that was implanted in our heads, the Controller."
Jesse added, "According to him, the Controllers are some kind of Tribunal device that, once activated, will randomly start accelerating our powers until we and our environment have been destroyed by them."
"Mr. Eckhart presented the argument that the Sub-dermal governors were a safeguard against activating the Controllers, but Brennan and Jesse weren't buying it. As a result, he deactivated the Governors." Helen Bryce commented. "I can't say I buy into the man's concept of control for the good of society, but he did seem genuinely concerned."
Adam's face was aghast. "Is there anything that sociopath won't try?" he exclaimed. "Mr. Queu, you're good with mechanical devices. I was wondering if you would also take a look at the Controller device to see if you might have an idea how to deactivate them."
Mr. Queu's noncommittal expression brightened. "Of course, Dr. Kane. I would be happy to have a peek at the little devil." The wrinkled, gray haired man made a show of straightening his clothes then looked at Emma and Shalimar . "Which of these two lovely ladies may I examine first?" Emma and Shalimar giggled.
Adam scowled and shook his head. "Lighten up, Adam. He's harmless." Lex said with an amused smile.
"I'm not sure how much time we have to prepare ourselves." Adam replied. "I wonder how much of Eckhart's story is true? He is known for dispensing small amounts of the truth with large amounts of his twisted spin. He has also been known to lie outright. If the Tribunal's Controller devices really do what he claims, then Brennan and Jesse may only have one shot at using their abilities. After that, they have any number of opportunities to use their abilities ranging from one to whatever, before the device destroys them. Then again, it may all be a lie and we're holding back for nothing." Adam looked at Jesse and Brennan. "I can't have you take that risk."
"Perhaps Mr. Eckhart is counting on you not believing his story," Mr. Queu offered seriously.
Brennan paced irritably. So here we are, prisoners of our own bodies. Adam, I could free one person before the risk factor sets in.
Adam shook his head. "No, Brennan, too risky, especially when we still have other options. Let us take a look at the Controllers. Maybe we can disable these things."
Frank stared cautiously at Adam, then at Clark. Quietly stepping to Adam, he said, "That kid disabled the first controller that was in my head at the mansion when my…" he cast a backward look at Choe and Lana "…abilities started to go out of control. Clark used his pocket knife. It can't be that difficult."
"Does anyone have a pocket knife?" Shalimar asked cheerfully, hearing every word. Frank glared at her. Adam looked concerned at Clark, who was sitting against the wall at the rear of the group huddled into a small ball.
"Maybe he can show you what he did." Frank persisted.
Adam looked at Clark with concern. "Clark, you look horrible. Would you mind if I gave you a check up?" Clark shook his head listlessly. "No problem," he answered. Adam helped him up by the arm and as they walked to the other end of the twenty foot room, Clark suddenly seemed to spring back to life.
"I feel much better, Adam." Clark whispered. "I'm sure now that it's the meteor rock still in the bodies of my friends that was making me sick. I'll be fine as long as I'm several feet away from the Kryptonite in their bodies."
"Being in this room isn't going to help," Adam replied. "So you call meteor rock, Kryptonite?"
Clark nodded. "That's the name of the planet that this meteor rock came from. I had consulted an expert in the field a few months ago." The farm boy looked down while Adam checked the sub-dermal governor at the back of his neck. Adam whistled softly.
"I doubt that this is functional. In fact it looks like your body is in the process of rejecting it." Adam stared at Clark with a fascinated expression. "You're exhibiting advanced regenerative powers. Shalimar told me that you have some pretty special powers. What did you really do to Frank's Controller device?" Adam checked Clark's pulse.
"I used a heat ray. A very thin, controlled burst melted it down." Clark whispered. Adam nodded. "I didn't want Mr. Rose to know what I am so I showed him my knife-kit. My folks told me to never disclose what I can do to others. I guess they're just trying to protect me."
"Your folks are very wise, indeed. You do well to take their advice." Adam replied. He placed a hand on the young man's shoulder. When Clark looked up at him, Adam said, "You have a great destiny ahead of you, Clark. You'll learn that some things are never what they appear to be on the surface. Listen to your parents, they love you and seem to be very wise people. If you ever decide that you need to disappear, we can arrange it for you."
Clark nodded. "I'll be fine here, Adam. Thanks."
Adam smiled and walked back to the group. Clark followed with a determined look on his face as the waves of fatigue and nausea swept over him again.
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As Jesse sat in a chair before Adam and Mr. Queu to let them examine the small piece of the Tribunal's Controller in his head, Mr. Queu cast an exaggerated, regretful glance in Shalimar's and Emma's direction. Lex smirked at Queu and clapped him on the back. "Nice," he teased, then followed Helen to observe her training. Queu stood beside Adam and looking across the room at the group of New Mutants, sighed heavily. Adam unconsciously flinched.
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"How does it feel to have special powers?" Lex asked almost wistfully, watching Helen and Lana." Helen smiled without answering, as she imitated Shalimar's catlike movements.
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"So you have telekinetic powers too," Chloe was saying to Frank. "How does yours work? All I have to do is visualize what I want and things start floating around to make it so. Emma, what's your power?"
"I'm a Telempath. I can read and project feelings." Emma said simply. "Clear your mind. You will find that your powers operate more quickly and efficiently if you can focus and block out the distractions around you."
"Emma's right," Frank answered. "You start moving things with your mind, a distraction could cause you to drop what your currently focused on and or start moving other things that you didn't intend,"
"I don't think I need your help, guys," Chloe said. "My powers worked fine. See?"
Emma and Frank exchanged frustrated looks as the young blond focused and caused them to levitate a couple feet above the floor. Shalimar, noticing the situation quietly walked over and stood closely behind Chloe.
"Haven't you ever learned to respect your teachers?" the Feral asked quietly in her ear. Chloe let out a little shriek. Emma and Frank dropped to the ground while Shalimar and five others of the group went flying. As faces glared at her, a chastened Chloe, ruefully grinned and said, "Point well taken."
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The back corner of the room seemed to fluoresce brightly and the image of Mason Eckhart appeared.
"He's back," Chloe said.
The white-haired man draped in a long black gown like a judge glanced around the room, assessing look on his face. Turning to Adam, he said, "Ah, ADam," he said, "so nice of you to drop in." he said. "Saves me the work of tracking you down and bringing you to justice."
"Mason, we all know the Tribunal has nothing to do with justice." Adam growled, now face to face with the life-sized hologram.
"You know him?" Queu asked.
Eckhart continued, "But it has everything to do with bringing down a known fugitive who has altered and ruined thousands of lives with his genetic experiments. Shameless scientific curiosity, all in the almighty name of science- or was it in the almighty name of Adam Kane's quest for mastery of the human genome? How blasphemous! " The pale man paced dramatically and glared at Adam over his dark framed glasses. "Shame on you, Adam for what you have done." He reprimanded.
Adam stared amazed at the audacity of the his adversary, then spat back, "and what about you, Mason Eckhart? And what about your enslavement of hundreds of these children of Genomex? You've held them against their will, just as you've done with us here, and experimented on them as if they were nothing but lab animals!"
The white-haired man stared at Adam and ignored his question. "The Tribunal will pick up your trial where it left off. Mutant X will share in your sentence." He turned to Lex. "Mr. Luthor, my research shows that this does not concern you. The Tribunal, unfortunately thought otherwise and had you collected as part of your father's party."
"What crime is my father being tried for?" Lex asked.
The hologram shook its head. "The less you know, the better. You have all been subject to the, ah, products of your father's research. He must be stopped." The hologram stared at Adam. "Just like this man who claims to be the wronged scientist. I will try to convince the Tribunal to release you, Mr. Luthor, and restrict their investigation to their principle suspects."
"and my friends?" Lex asked. The image stared appraisingly at Mr. Queu, Clark, Helen, Lana and Chloe. Helen shivered as the hologram's unreadable gaze met hers. "They have been contaminated, however, we may be able to make arrangements," Eckhart said softly, not taking his eyes off hers.
Just then, the door to the holding area opened and Mr. Warren walked in. Staring at Eckhart with unbridled hostility, Mr. Warren said, "I wasn't aware that the Prosecutor made house calls." He pulled out his revolver and after glancing around briefly, shot at one of the ceiling tiles. The image of Mason Eckhart flickered and began fading. Eckhart leaned toward the Defense Counsel and with a mocking half-smile said softly, "I will prevail, Counsel."
After the image faded completely, the burly, business suited man pointed his revolver at Lex and Helen and gestured them to step aside. "I'm Mr. Warren, your father's Defense Counsel. I'm here to collect the rest of my clients."
"No. You're not taking me anywhere," Lex replied, standing his ground.
"YOU'RE not going anywhere either," Shalimar growled at Mr. Warren. The man shrugged and pressed his revolver into Helen's back. The beautiful brunette bit back her terror at the feel of solid metal at her shoulder.
"Looks like you don't have much of a choice," Mr. Warren replied, producing a small black box with his free hand. " If any of you make a move or if I get any more resistance from Mr. Lex, she gets the bullet." Lex cast a warning glance at Shalimar. The blond Feral backed down.
"That's better. Now as a little insurance…." The Counselor pressed a button and
the closely gathered group suddenly became bathed in a golden haze, frozen in whatever position they were in, captured in a stasis beam. Mr. Warren kept an arm wrapped around Helen, revolver buried in her back. She stumbled to keep pace with him as he paced restlessly around the confines of the stasis field he created. "Sorry, Adam. Your trial is finished. We only need to complete your sentence." He stood in front of Adam and smiled evilly.
"Adam, you really should train your people to stand strategically apart. This was too easy. The Tribunal wants to purge the world of your Mutant creations and they have the resources to do it. We will rid the world of people like yourself who create these anomalies," he added.
"What about the alleged accusations against my father and me?" Lex demanded. "What kind of defense are you?" Lex's expression grew wary at the evil smile from the silent Counselor.
"With your cooperation, Mr. Luthor- mind if I call you Lex- after I win this case for your father, the Tribunal will restore me to my rightful place as Prosecutor, then I will have Adam and his little band of renegade freaks properly taken care of." Mr. Warren smiled as he kept Lex Luthor in view, dragging the lovely Helen Bryce around the room with him. The young millionaire would do anything he asked to protect his friends and fiance. What a chump, he thought.
Helen, uncomfortable and humiliated began to feel her trademark anger begin to rise. This was not the time or place, she warned herself, but the experiment had enhanced her physical strength and emotions, not her self control.
As Mr. Warren inspected his stasis-frozen captives, he grinned at Lex and down at Helen. "Such hostility," he said in an amused tone as frozen, angry expressions glared back at him. He peered at Adam and Mr. Queu, whose heads were turned toward him. Queu's expression was uncharacteristically angry and forbidding. Turning his attention back to Lex and Helen he said curtly, "Let's go."
Unable to contain her anger any longer, Helen broke out of her captor's grasp and flung him at the wall. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The revolver went off as the burly businessman flew backwards toward the wall. Helen grasped her chest and collapsed in pain. Lex stared in horror for a moment and dived to catch Helen as she fell to the floor, blood running down the front of her blouse and onto his shirt. He knelt over his fiancé. The remote clattered to the floor and slid to Adam's feet, engulfed in the stasis field. Mr. Warren hit the wall with force, but landed on his feet, revolver still in hand.
"Get going, NOW!" he shouted at Lex, wildly jabbing the gun at him. Lex's eyes strayed momentarily to Queu, who was still frozen in the golden beam, his face a mask of terrible anger. Lex then looked down at Helen, who was pale and barely conscious.
"I love you, Lex," she whispered. "Save yourself."
"You're no more than a murderer," Lex snarled at the man. Mr. Warren grabbed Lex by the collar and hauled him to his feet, burying the gun in his chest.
"MOVE!" he shouted. Furious at himself for being so helpless, Lex angrily complied with the man's demands but kept looking back frantically at Helen's still, bleeding form lying on the floor. The rest of his fellow captives stood frozen in place like mannequins.
"MOVE!" Mr. Warren shouted again. Looking back one last time, Lex yelled, "Helen!"
Mr. Warren pressed his thumb into a pad near the door. It opened and he pushed Lex out the door, revolver buried in his back. The door slammed shut and locked with a click.
