Note and Disclaimer: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune entertainment. Their use here is purely in the interests of fun and no copyright infringement is intended. Nichole Page, Anne, Siobhan, and all other non-canonical characters are my invention, but feel free to use them if you've a mind to.
Author's note: Thanks for all the encouraging reviews! I can't believe the response this has had, especially considering that when I started it, a) I thought it would be three chapters tops; and b) I thought it would be just a bit of fluff to take my mind off the other story. The plot has grown considerably from how I first envisioned it, and pretty much entirely because of your reviews! Keep sending in your thoughts and suggestions - I have very little idea where this one's going! I'm going to try to get a little more humour in in future chapters if I can.
Spoiler: Very, very slight spoiler for ep 202 - Power Play. Doesn't even deserve to be called a spoiler. More a reference.
Four Mutants and a Baby: Chapter 6
by Deichtine
Anne sat restlessly in a corner or the coffee shop. Every two moments she glanced nervously towards the door, checked her watch, and took a sip of coffee.
At precisely one o'clock, four young people entered the shop, talking animatedly amongst themselves, yet despite their seemingly relaxed attitude, there was an air of...wariness about them. The tallest, a good-looking man in a fashionably long black leather coat (which Anne privately thought looked rather silly) seemed to be taking stock of the whole room with every casual glance. The blonde girl, despite her easy smile as she chatted with the younger man, looked ready to pounce without warning.
They caught sight of her; Anne wasn't intended to see them noticing her, she knew, but she could tell. They recognized her. While three of them chose a table (conveniently located so that they could watch all the entrances), the fourth, a young redheaded woman, casually moved over to where Anne was sitting.
"A lot of weather we've been having," the young woman said, and Anne relaxed slightly. That was the signal phrase. These were Adam's people after all.
"Not as much as last year," Anne responded, and the young woman nodded, satisfied.
"My name's Emma. May I sit down?" Anne waved at the chair opposite her, and Emma sat down and folded her hands atop the table.
"Thank you for meeting us," the young woman continued, then looked stopped suddenly. She looked curiously at her, straight in the eye. Suddenly, she reached out and squeezed Anne's hand briefly, smiling encouragingly. Anna felt certain, suddenly, that she could trust these young people implicitly. "You don't have to be scared anymore. Adam is going to take care of everything," she said gently, then smiled brightly. "Are you ready to go?"
"Siobhan...is she okay?" Anne asked, and Emma didn't need any empathic gifts to hear the longing in her voice.
"She's fine. Adam is taking care of her. She was napping when we left."
A lump came to Anne's throat and she was quiet for a moment. Emma, understanding, simply waited. Finally, Anne took a deep breath and said, "Okay. Let's go see my baby." They rose and left the shop, joined nonchalantly by the rest of the team. The tall one led the way, and the other two brought up the rear. Once they were outside, Emma quickly made the introductions and they began to move as a group to the alley where the Double Helix was sitting cloaked.
As they reached the mouth of the seemingly empty alley, the group stopped, and the four team members exchanged a glance. Jesse, the blond man, produced from a case in his pocket what looked like a small transparent plastic circle.
"We call this an optical inhibitor," he said, showing it to her. "It's basically an electronic blindfold."
"Blindfold?" Alarm rose in Anna and she reflexively glanced back towards the coffee shop. "What for?"
"You must think we don't trust you," Emma said soothingly. "But that's not it at all. We want to protect you. It's a fact that, if you learned the location of our Sanctuary, and anyone else found out that you knew, you would be in danger. This way, when this is all over, and you and Siobhan are building your new life, you can make a clean break with us and you won't have to worry about our enemies linking you with us."
Anne nodded. She was frightened, but rationally she respected these people's right to guard their secrets. She had trusted them with Siobhan; she just had to trust them again. She allowed the young man to place the little disc on her right temple, and gasped as her vision darkened.
But as Emma gently took her arm to guide her to the Helix, a shot rang out, its sharp report echoing off the walls of the alleyway.
"Get down!" she heard Brennan shout, and a pair of hands grasped her shoulders and pulled her to the ground. She cried out in fear and pain as she fell hard to the ground.
"Don't move!" Jesse said in a low voice next to her ear, and then his weight and presence were gone.
Too terrified to move even an inch, she listened to the battle. The sharp sound of gunshots snapped like firecrackers all around, and she heard Brennan cry out in pain, and Emma shout his name in fear as she realized he was hit. Then the distinctive thudding blows of hand to hand combat began to replace gunshots, and she heard groaning, and bodies striking the earth.
Suddenly she felt the hair lifting at the back of her neck, and a strange buzzing crackle filled the air, almost like a lightning strike. Someone cried out.
"Dammit, there's too many of them!" Shalimar cried in frustration.
Emma groaned in pain; Anne could hear her trying to get her breath.
"We've got to get out of here! Brennan's shot, and I think I've got a broken rib," Jesse called,his voice tight, and suddenly strong hands were grasping Anne's arms, pulling her to her feet.
"Jesse?" she said in confusion. He had sounded too far away to reach her that fast. Maybe that was his gift?
"No! Anne!" Brennan shouted, and somewhere away to the left she heard again that strange electrical noise, and then all movement ceased.
Suddenly, horribly, Anne realized that the hands that gripped her arms so tightly belonged to the wrong side, and she began to struggle wildly. Then she heard a sound which made her go perfectly still: the click of a gun being readied to shoot - directly beside her left ear.
"Don't do it, Mulwray," a deep voice warned, right behind her - the man who was holding her. "Any of you moves, she dies."
"Who are you people?" Shalimar demanded angrily.
"None of your business. Tell Adam he has three days to surrender the kid to us, or Mummy here bites the dust. Same place, same time."
"Don't do it!" Anne cried out. "Don't let Adam give them my baby!" She felt herself pulled roughly away, her hands cuffed behind her, and then she was shoved into the back of a car, which began to move the moment the door shut.
For a little while there was no sound other than the car's motor and the breathing of her captors. Then a voice asked, "What's up with her eyes?" They spoke about her, as though she were incapable of answering for herself, and she didn't feel any compulsion to answer them.
"Look at her temple there. I bet that's what's causing it." There was a pause, and Anne thought she felt a slight movement in the air before her face, as if he were waving his hand in front of her. "She can't see a thing."
"Good. Leave it there. Man, it's like they handed her to us. The great Mutant X." The voice was derisive, self-satisfied in victory.
"Don't celebrate just yet. That was closer than it should have been. Did you see what Mulwray did to Steve? He must have flown thirty feet."
As they bantered on, Anne's spirits sank even lower, and she felt tears accumulating behind the optical forcefields. Trust me, he says, she thought bitterly. This line is secure. No one can hear us. I only hope he's better at keeping Siobhan safe than his telephone line.
Siobhan was inconsolable. Adam couldn't understand it. Shalimar had called in to say that they had met Anne and were coming in, and only a few minutes later Siobhan had begun to cry, a long, keening wail of sorrow, and nothing Adam tried could calm her; she just cried and cried. So Adam held her on his shoulder and walked up and down the length of Sanctuary, murmuring softly.
Suddenly the com system came to life. "Adam!" Shalimar's voice was tight with worry and strain.
"Shalimar! What's wrong?" Adam set Siobhan down in her crib and stepped away, so that he could hear Shalimar better.
"It was a disaster, Adam. An ambush. They knew we were coming. Brennan and Jesse are hurt, and they got Anne."
As if she understood, Siobhan began to cry even louder.
Adam pressed his fingers to his temples and closed his eyes as guilt washed through him. Disaster indeed. "How badly are they hurt?"
"Brennan's been shot in the leg, and he's bleeding a lot. Jesse thinks he's got a broken rib or two."
"Get back here as soon as you can, and we'll figure out what to do next when you get here."
"Okay." He closed the channel and picked up Siobhan again, stroked her head softly, but his eyes burned with anger.
"Poor Anne. She didn't have a chance," Emma said. She lowered her cheek to gently nuzzle Siobhan's; the baby had finally cried herself to sleep in her arms shortly after the team had returned.
Shalimar was standing outside the lab, resting her forehead on the glass wall as she gazed in at her two sleeping teammates. "I don't understand it," she said, without turning around. "There is no way they could have known about that meeting. Or where exactly we would bring her. The Helix was cloaked, and there was no one in the alley when we landed, I'm sure of it."
"I thought you and Jesse had fixed the holes in the communication system after Colonel Gaumont was able to interfere with our comlinks," Emma said, but Adam, who was sitting tiredly on the table/bench/computer terminal which protruded from the wall nearby, just rubbed his eyes and shrugged.
"I thought we had too. I think, given the skills these people have shown both in hiding themselves and in breaking through our shielding, we can't afford to take any more chances. From now on, we'll maintain complete radio silence except in absolute emergencies, and avoid using the Helix as much as possible." He shook his head; his shoulders sagged with fatigue. "I don't know why I should be surprised," he said with a mirthless laugh. "You said it yourself, Shalimar. At the depth these people, whoever they are, have hidden themselves, all of Sanctuary could be laid bare. And we're going to have to proceed under the assumption that it has been. We can't take anything for granted."
Within the lab, Brennan began to move restlessly in his sleep, and Shalimar immediately went in, to be there if he woke up. Adam and Emma exchanged a small smile, but then Jesse groaned, his hand reaching to his chest even before his eyes opened, and Emma immediately passed the baby to Adam and went in to stand at his bedside. Adam took Siobhan in his arms, adjusted her blanket, and sighed heavily. Three days - two and a half now, really. What was he going to do?
End chapter 6.
As always, comments, questions, suggestions, and constructive criticism are always welcome at