That's weird, Jesse thought. Well, in a good way, I suppose.
But still he was confused. This morning when he checked, the alarms were still all wrong; and he had been meaning to fix the security system once and for all after his radiotherapy session. And now that he was feeling well, refreshed and free from pain, even if it was only for a short while, he was looking forward to the task.
It turned out not to be any task at all. The system had somehow fixed itself and there was nothing on the radar at the moment, no beeping alarm signal, no big flashing 'Intruder!!!' sign, nada.
Well. Jesse straightened up and crossed his arms across his chest. That's- good. I guess.
Uncertainly, he shrugged and turned the computer off. He flicked a glance at the thin, metal cuff circling his wrist, satisfied at the big red zero staring back at him. It was actually a monitoring device Adam had just invented, its in-built ceramic-based detectors able to withstand the radioactive beams it emitted through his skin, into his blood. It was one of its kind, and just about the fastest device that could detect the presence of cancerous cells, if any, without having to go through X-rays. So right now, Jesse was clean. For now.
He checked the security system again, which he had put on stand-by a few days ago. Satisfied, he lifted the bar and got himself out of the station. He looked at the sensor on his wrist again and wondered when the reading was going to change; the big zero percent was scaring him, taunting him, telling him that it wasn't going to be zero for long.
******************* "She's getting away! Brennan!" Shalimar snapped furiously, and she instantly broke into a run, her long golden hair flying about in an entangled mass. They had followed a lead that brought them to a nice, two- storey house in the suburbs just to find the mutant GS agent they were looking for flee from them again, for the second time, a fact which infuriated her, another successful capture for the record. Great, Genomex scores another. Just great.
Well, Shalimar wasn't going to let her get away this time. Not on my watch, she thought. And with that in mind, she leaped.
"Shalimar!" Brennan yelled, his long coat billowing behind him as he increased speed to his footfalls, his eyes widening in horror. True, Shalimar was brash, and overly protective when it came to people she cared for, but this was suicide; even she should know that. He was still a few feet away when Shalimar spread-eagled. "Shalimar, stop!!!"
A few nanoseconds later, Shalimar's booted right foot viciously caught the dark-haired woman on her temple, sending her reeling and the very sick mutant she was half-carrying to the ground. But the carcinogenic elemental was quick to steady herself on her feet and she braced herself for another punch; Shalimar was fighting blindly and Elaine had no doubt she would win.
Either she was unaware of the danger she was in or that she just didn't care, Shalimar let her feral side show and with a snarl she advanced again, throwing punch after punch, kick after kick; so swift their movements were blurry. But Elaine had the upper hand, having managed to knock Shalimar off her feet, sending her crashing flat on her back on the ground.
Brennan's eyes widened as a resplendent red aura emanated from Elaine's upraised hand. A cold look passed in her eyes as she lowered her hand to the struggling feral's body.
*******************
Jesse Kilmartin stared glassy-eyed at the monitor. Damn supersonic radar.
His fingers flew over the keyboard soundlessly. C'mon man. . .this can't be happening! Hello? I'm supposed to be the expert here! How can this happen again?
Since he had discovered what could have just been a glitch in the Sanctuary's system a few days ago, his mind had not been at rest. Not that it would have been if this mess with the alarm hadn't come up; he did have life-threatening issues to think about anyway. But still, working had always helped him clear his mind. And somehow he had also unconsciously instilled the belief in his subconscious that it would at least take his mind off the pain.
And when everything looked normal to him that morning, he thought the glitch had been fixed.
Jesse cursed silently. He closed his eyes for a few second, before opening them slowly. Still the radar was telling him the same thing. A large red orb had appeared all over the Sanctuary, enveloping their home in what looked like a giant red ozone layer. Still, he couldn't pinpoint where the waves were coming from.
What could I have done wrong? Should I alert Adam?
No, he told himself. It has been like this for days and nothing happened. Just fix it like you always do, Jesse. You can do it.
He rebooted the whole system and reconfigured everything, annoyed that he was doing the same thing he had done over and over again for the past few days but didn't seem to work. Well, it did seem to him like it had worked this morning.
Just when Jesse was about to change the access code, he felt a pang of pain in his stomach. He tried to ignore it and concentrate on his work, but the persistent ache lingered, burning and intensifying with every passing minute. He kept an arm pressed against his abdomen and that at least gave him relief.
But not for long. Jesse gritted his teeth and leaned back in his seat. A quick peek at his wrist told him that the number was climbing. The pain got even worse and he couldn't believe his eyes; the tumor had regenerated itself in the matter of hours, and now it had reached 60% of its original size before it was destroyed through radiotherapy just the night before. It was 50% a half hour ago.
A lump rose in Jesse's throat. The tumor was growing fast inside him, so fast he couldn't even catch his breath.
I don't need this, he thought angrily. A loud beep from the computer caught his attention. Jesse slowly pushed himself forward, an arm still locked around his belly.
The red orb had enlarged, covering most of the waters around the mountains. If he thought the orb had looked big before, now it was humongous; and according to the sensors, almost 2000 square miles around the Sanctuary were supposed to be in the red now, which literally meant that by now, they should have been surrounded by a fleet of fighter jets or war ships three times the size of a normal battalion. The radar was now blinking furiously, in time with his racing heart.
Frantically, Jesse activated the real video security camera and seconds later, numerous close-ups of the Sanctuary and its surrounding areas taken from the air and below flickered one by one across the screen. Nothing. No lurking submarines, no periscopes poking through the water surface, no laser guns trained on the Sanctuary. The yellow sea water was lapping gently at the rocks, and seagulls flew feely in the air.
"What the hell is going on?" Jesse hissed to himself.
Everything was fine this morning! What could have gone wrong? He wondered frantically. This is not normal.
The radar was blinking furiously next to him, flashing red on and off with each passing second. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. . . trying to claw its way out. But what could it be?
He stared at the sensor again, watching as it emitted brilliant red lights across the workroom. Watching as the light it gave out hit everything in its way, bouncing of the wall. . . passing through the glass door. . . glowing against the antique Balinese vase near the couch. . .the light it gave out. . .
Then he had it.
Jesse's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open.
Could it be?
He bolted upright and started typing furiously, frantically. And as he entered the last command into the computer to process, he could feel his heart slam into his ribcage with every gasp of breath he took. Cold sweat dripped down his face. The sickness was getting to him, he knew. But he had to know.
When the data scrolled down the screen, Jesse could feel every breath leave him in sudden cold blasts. Everything was starting to fit in now. How could he have not thought of this sooner?
He finally realized what his mistake was. He had been too busy trying to figure where all the waves were coming from, waves so radioactive they seemed to have come from nuclear weapons. But he was wrong.
The waves didn't come from a fighter jet. Or a war ship. Or a torpedo launcher.
It came from me, he realized sickly. The waves were coming from me.
Sanctuary was not sensing the waves from outside, it was emitting waves from inside. It works both ways, Jesse thought crazily. Now he remembered Brennan and Shalimar discussing how the mutant who had done this to him managed to get to the other New Mutants she had inflicted with the disease before they could. She could sense it. She could sense the waves, and where they came from, he thought in horror, realization finally dawning on him.
That was why there was no sign of alarm this morning; he had just gone through radiotherapy and there were no cancerous cells present in his body.
And now the cancer had come back, Jesse knew and it was telling Elaine where he was.
Oh God.
He was leading her straight to the Sanctuary.
"Genomex," Jesse Kilmartin whispered.
But still he was confused. This morning when he checked, the alarms were still all wrong; and he had been meaning to fix the security system once and for all after his radiotherapy session. And now that he was feeling well, refreshed and free from pain, even if it was only for a short while, he was looking forward to the task.
It turned out not to be any task at all. The system had somehow fixed itself and there was nothing on the radar at the moment, no beeping alarm signal, no big flashing 'Intruder!!!' sign, nada.
Well. Jesse straightened up and crossed his arms across his chest. That's- good. I guess.
Uncertainly, he shrugged and turned the computer off. He flicked a glance at the thin, metal cuff circling his wrist, satisfied at the big red zero staring back at him. It was actually a monitoring device Adam had just invented, its in-built ceramic-based detectors able to withstand the radioactive beams it emitted through his skin, into his blood. It was one of its kind, and just about the fastest device that could detect the presence of cancerous cells, if any, without having to go through X-rays. So right now, Jesse was clean. For now.
He checked the security system again, which he had put on stand-by a few days ago. Satisfied, he lifted the bar and got himself out of the station. He looked at the sensor on his wrist again and wondered when the reading was going to change; the big zero percent was scaring him, taunting him, telling him that it wasn't going to be zero for long.
******************* "She's getting away! Brennan!" Shalimar snapped furiously, and she instantly broke into a run, her long golden hair flying about in an entangled mass. They had followed a lead that brought them to a nice, two- storey house in the suburbs just to find the mutant GS agent they were looking for flee from them again, for the second time, a fact which infuriated her, another successful capture for the record. Great, Genomex scores another. Just great.
Well, Shalimar wasn't going to let her get away this time. Not on my watch, she thought. And with that in mind, she leaped.
"Shalimar!" Brennan yelled, his long coat billowing behind him as he increased speed to his footfalls, his eyes widening in horror. True, Shalimar was brash, and overly protective when it came to people she cared for, but this was suicide; even she should know that. He was still a few feet away when Shalimar spread-eagled. "Shalimar, stop!!!"
A few nanoseconds later, Shalimar's booted right foot viciously caught the dark-haired woman on her temple, sending her reeling and the very sick mutant she was half-carrying to the ground. But the carcinogenic elemental was quick to steady herself on her feet and she braced herself for another punch; Shalimar was fighting blindly and Elaine had no doubt she would win.
Either she was unaware of the danger she was in or that she just didn't care, Shalimar let her feral side show and with a snarl she advanced again, throwing punch after punch, kick after kick; so swift their movements were blurry. But Elaine had the upper hand, having managed to knock Shalimar off her feet, sending her crashing flat on her back on the ground.
Brennan's eyes widened as a resplendent red aura emanated from Elaine's upraised hand. A cold look passed in her eyes as she lowered her hand to the struggling feral's body.
*******************
Jesse Kilmartin stared glassy-eyed at the monitor. Damn supersonic radar.
His fingers flew over the keyboard soundlessly. C'mon man. . .this can't be happening! Hello? I'm supposed to be the expert here! How can this happen again?
Since he had discovered what could have just been a glitch in the Sanctuary's system a few days ago, his mind had not been at rest. Not that it would have been if this mess with the alarm hadn't come up; he did have life-threatening issues to think about anyway. But still, working had always helped him clear his mind. And somehow he had also unconsciously instilled the belief in his subconscious that it would at least take his mind off the pain.
And when everything looked normal to him that morning, he thought the glitch had been fixed.
Jesse cursed silently. He closed his eyes for a few second, before opening them slowly. Still the radar was telling him the same thing. A large red orb had appeared all over the Sanctuary, enveloping their home in what looked like a giant red ozone layer. Still, he couldn't pinpoint where the waves were coming from.
What could I have done wrong? Should I alert Adam?
No, he told himself. It has been like this for days and nothing happened. Just fix it like you always do, Jesse. You can do it.
He rebooted the whole system and reconfigured everything, annoyed that he was doing the same thing he had done over and over again for the past few days but didn't seem to work. Well, it did seem to him like it had worked this morning.
Just when Jesse was about to change the access code, he felt a pang of pain in his stomach. He tried to ignore it and concentrate on his work, but the persistent ache lingered, burning and intensifying with every passing minute. He kept an arm pressed against his abdomen and that at least gave him relief.
But not for long. Jesse gritted his teeth and leaned back in his seat. A quick peek at his wrist told him that the number was climbing. The pain got even worse and he couldn't believe his eyes; the tumor had regenerated itself in the matter of hours, and now it had reached 60% of its original size before it was destroyed through radiotherapy just the night before. It was 50% a half hour ago.
A lump rose in Jesse's throat. The tumor was growing fast inside him, so fast he couldn't even catch his breath.
I don't need this, he thought angrily. A loud beep from the computer caught his attention. Jesse slowly pushed himself forward, an arm still locked around his belly.
The red orb had enlarged, covering most of the waters around the mountains. If he thought the orb had looked big before, now it was humongous; and according to the sensors, almost 2000 square miles around the Sanctuary were supposed to be in the red now, which literally meant that by now, they should have been surrounded by a fleet of fighter jets or war ships three times the size of a normal battalion. The radar was now blinking furiously, in time with his racing heart.
Frantically, Jesse activated the real video security camera and seconds later, numerous close-ups of the Sanctuary and its surrounding areas taken from the air and below flickered one by one across the screen. Nothing. No lurking submarines, no periscopes poking through the water surface, no laser guns trained on the Sanctuary. The yellow sea water was lapping gently at the rocks, and seagulls flew feely in the air.
"What the hell is going on?" Jesse hissed to himself.
Everything was fine this morning! What could have gone wrong? He wondered frantically. This is not normal.
The radar was blinking furiously next to him, flashing red on and off with each passing second. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. . . trying to claw its way out. But what could it be?
He stared at the sensor again, watching as it emitted brilliant red lights across the workroom. Watching as the light it gave out hit everything in its way, bouncing of the wall. . . passing through the glass door. . . glowing against the antique Balinese vase near the couch. . .the light it gave out. . .
Then he had it.
Jesse's eyes went wide and his mouth fell open.
Could it be?
He bolted upright and started typing furiously, frantically. And as he entered the last command into the computer to process, he could feel his heart slam into his ribcage with every gasp of breath he took. Cold sweat dripped down his face. The sickness was getting to him, he knew. But he had to know.
When the data scrolled down the screen, Jesse could feel every breath leave him in sudden cold blasts. Everything was starting to fit in now. How could he have not thought of this sooner?
He finally realized what his mistake was. He had been too busy trying to figure where all the waves were coming from, waves so radioactive they seemed to have come from nuclear weapons. But he was wrong.
The waves didn't come from a fighter jet. Or a war ship. Or a torpedo launcher.
It came from me, he realized sickly. The waves were coming from me.
Sanctuary was not sensing the waves from outside, it was emitting waves from inside. It works both ways, Jesse thought crazily. Now he remembered Brennan and Shalimar discussing how the mutant who had done this to him managed to get to the other New Mutants she had inflicted with the disease before they could. She could sense it. She could sense the waves, and where they came from, he thought in horror, realization finally dawning on him.
That was why there was no sign of alarm this morning; he had just gone through radiotherapy and there were no cancerous cells present in his body.
And now the cancer had come back, Jesse knew and it was telling Elaine where he was.
Oh God.
He was leading her straight to the Sanctuary.
"Genomex," Jesse Kilmartin whispered.