"Better watch your step, bro," Brennan advised.
Jesse halted half-way through pulling off his tee. He responded with all the higher level thought he could muster at eleven o'clock at night after a three hour drive and four sleepless nights. "Huh?"
Brennan pulled his toothbrush out of his bag, rummaging with his good hand, his other arm in a sling keeping him movements awkward. "I mean it, man. Didn't you notice how Tess clung to you tonight? If it weren't for the fact that she can't touch any mutant without draining them, she'd have been nibbling on your ear and whispering sweet nothings. Face it, Jesse. You're some serious competition for Tom, and he's feeling the pressure."
"Come again?" Jesse stuffed the tee back into his duffel and flopped onto the bed. The pair were sharing one of the two guest rooms, anticipating that the distaff half of Mutant X would arrive within another day or so. "If you're saying what I think you're saying, Brennan, you're crazy. Tess is jailbait. Sure, she's a dynamite kid, but she's a kid. She's fourteen, Brennan!"
"And Tom is fifteen, and crazy about her," Brennan pointed out. "Here you are, big man from out of town, all suave and sophisticated. You speak Italian like a native. You drive a car that has Tom drooling even without a driver's license. And you've saved her life not once but twice. How can Tom compete with that?"
"He doesn't have to," Jesse growled. "He's welcome to her!"
"Right. Now you've just told them both that she's not good enough for you. You can bet that I know better than to tell a woman that, Jess. Even a fourteen year old woman."
"So what am I supposed to do? Ignore her?" Jesse was honestly bewildered. "We came down to see her, Brennan; her and Ernest and Tom. I mean, I can't exactly go up to Tom and say, 'she's all yours. You can have my blessing.'" He groaned. "I don't suppose running away from Lady Esther's home is an option?"
"A little immature. Besides, I think Tess already tried it. Didn't work then, either." Brennan threw his own shirt at Jesse. "Just watch yourself, man. Stay cool. Don't give Tom any reason to freak, okay?"
"More than okay." Jesse yawned. "Turn out the lights, would you, Brennan? Either it's the fresh country air, or Lady Esther's cooking, or the thought of getting away from it all, but I can't keep my eyes open." He plopped his head onto the pillow. "And don't forget to take your antibiotics. Shalimar will kill us both if you do."
"So don't tell her," Brennan advised. He looked at the narcotics in his hand, and frowned. "After last night, I think these can take a holiday, though."
"Your arm feeling better? No pain?"
"Well enough. The thought of a repeat performance of last night is enough to put me off these things for a good long time."
Jesse stretched, and turned over, tucking the cover underneath his chin. "Not into hallucinations? Fine by me. Just don't forget the antibiotics."
* * *
It was the same nightmare that had plagued him for the last week. Absalom Maguire, irrevocably insane father of Tess and Ernest, pursued him down the corridor, shrieking and brandishing a black collar that Jesse remembered all too well. Jesse tried to phase through the wall, to escape the black-cloaked horror, but the specter chased him through the wall into an identical corridor. Which was impossible for Absalom Maguire in real life, but seemed to be perfectly reasonable for the dream version.
Maguire got closer and closer to him. Jesse could see the vivid red burns on the man's face from the factory explosion when they'd rescued Tess the first time. Dream-Maguire clutched at Jesse with claw-like hands, forcing the collar around his neck, choking him. Jesse fought back, trying to call out for help, for his team mates.
"Jesse! Jesse! Wake up, man! You're having a bad dream again!"
Jesse froze. Brennan's concerned visage swam into his line of sight, and Jesse fell back shame-facedly, realizing that he'd instinctively solid-massed his arm preparatory to punching the daylights out of someone. That the someone would have been Brennan only made it worse. "Brennan! Sorry, man. Did I wake you up?"
"You might say that," Brennan returned dryly. "I'm just hoping the rest of the household didn't hear you."
"Damn." Jesse felt cold with sweat. His heart was only now slowing down, and he felt as though he'd run a marathon. "I really didn't mean to do that."
"Same nightmare again? Like the last four nights running?"
"Yeah." Jesse dropped his gaze to the bedcovers. They were disheveled and half onto the floor. He reached down to pull them up off of the floor, and felt dizzy. He grabbed them hurriedly and flopped them onto the bed, hoping that Brennan didn't notice that he was about to pass out. How the hell could a bad dream do this to me?
Brennan didn't seem to, but was still concerned about Jesse's over all status. "You gotta do something, man. These things are really getting to you. When was the last time you had a good night's sleep?"
Jesse flopped back against the pillow, trying to make it look natural under the circumstances. "It seems like forever. At least a week. Maybe more. I don't know."
"Talk it out, Jess. It helped the first time, when we first found Tess. Remember? Adam made you talk about it. He made us all take shifts with you at night, until the nightmares went away. We were plenty worried about you, Jess. What do you remember about that time?"
"God, Brennan, don't go there." Jesse squeezed his eyes closed. He still felt wiped out, sweat beading up and making him shiver with cold. "I only remember bits and pieces, just that it was pretty horrible. I think Adam did something like hypnosis to help me get past the worst parts, and maybe Emma did some of it as well." He looked back at Brennan. "You never knew anything about what Maguire was doing in his back lab, did you?"
Brennan shook his head. "Adam just said that it was genetic research, and left it at that. Told us not to bring it up. You looked pretty shaky for a while."
"I was." He laughed hollowly. "Maguire really was advancing the science of genetics. With that one experiment he did with me, he gave Adam valuable insights into just where genetic mutations could be taken."
"At your expense."
"At my expense." Jesse rubbed his fingers together thoughtfully. "You've seen me alter the density of solid objects."
"A million and a half times, bro."
"Ever think what would happen if I didn't put everything back the way I found it?"
"Come again?"
"What if some of the stuff I phased got changed permanently? Maguire did just a small bit that you saw. Think of coal that I phased into diamonds."
"But that was just from pressure," Brennan protested. "Isn't that how diamonds are made? Heat and pressure underground. You sped up the process through phasing; they do that in commercial labs with heavy duty equipment. You re-ordered the molecules into alignment without commercial lab equipment. It nearly killed you."
Jesse laughed shortly. "That didn't matter much to Maguire. He was after results. And he didn't care how he got them."
Brennan felt his blood run cold. "What kind of results, Jesse? What was he trying to do when he took you into the back laboratory, out of my sight? What did he make you do?"
"It was that damn collar." Jesse swallowed hard, knowing that Brennan too had experienced its horror but still needing to talk about it. "It makes you feel like every nerve is on fire. It's like running a thousand watts of electricity through wiring meant for ten; it burns you out. And when Maguire was finished making you do what he wanted, you would wake up to find that you've done something that you never knew you could do. And that you never wanted to do again." Jesse's hands were shaking openly by now. "There were living things in that back laboratory, Brennan. Living things, some of them not yet born."
Blood running cold was only the beginning. Ice crystals were forming from red blood cells. "What kind of living things, Jesse? Humans?"
"I don't remember." Brennan could barely hear the molecular speak. "I think so. Humans, animals, and some things that I don't know what they were. It was one of the things that Adam made me forget; that I really didn't want to remember. And, Brennan, Maguire made Ernest go through that as well. Adam helped him to forget also; told me that there wasn't as much work to do not only because Ernest was younger but because his talents aren't as powerful as mine. Maguire wasn't able to do as much with him, although he tried." Jesse tried to pull himself together. "It's over, Brennan. Maguire is finished. He's insane, and nothing is ever going to bring him back. And his research is finished as well."
"Not quite," Brennan said. "You're still dealing with it, bro. No matter what Adam did for you a year ago, it's still coming back to haunt you right now. Look at you; you're shaking like a leaf."
"Can we not talk about haunting?" Jesse complained. His teeth were chattering in earnest. "After what Lady Esther said earlier, one or more of us is going seem seriously looney-toons." He jumped—something caught his eye. "What the hell was that?"
"What was what?'
"Whatever it was. It was going too fast for me to see."
"Not funny, Jesse. It's three AM."
"I'm not joking, Brennan. I saw something."
"You need some serious sleep—yow!"
"What?"
"I saw it, too. It was either a lizard, or the world's biggest cockroach."
There was a knock at the door. They both jumped.
"Mr. Mulray? Mr. Kilmartin? You sound like you're both awake."
"Lady Esther?" Brennan went to the door and opened it. "What are you doing up at this hour?"
Lady Esther smiled and walked in with a tray in her hands. She set it down on the nightstand. "I've raised four of my own, and a bundle of grandchildren besides these current three. After that many years of child-rearing, I'm a light sleeper."
"Sorry for waking you," Jesse apologized.
"Not at all. As a matter of fact, I'm pleased. I heard you talking; you saw the lizards?"
"One of 'em," Brennan admitted. "There are more?"
"Lots more," Lady Esther replied cheerfully. "Look, there goes another one. And another."
"You need an exterminator!" Brennan yelped, picking his feet up.
"Hush, keep your voice down. You'll wake the children," Lady Esther scolded. "I'm so pleased that you've seen them. So far I'm the only one who has. They scatter whenever anyone else is around. And the exterminator hasn't found hide nor hair of them."
"Lizards don't have hair," Brennan muttered under his breath.
"They mostly appear around now; now through breakfast," Lady Esther continued cheerfully. "Bats, too. And once there was a two foot long slug, but I was able to kill that with a handful of salt. The trash man took it away in a plastic bag."
"Did he know it was in there?"
"You know, I never thought to ask? The thing was quite dead. I wanted it out of the house before it started to smell." Lady Esther fixed a pointed eye on each of them. "And now you realize why I asked you young folks down here." She handed each man a mug. The hot chocolate smelled good, and the chocolate chip cookies hadn't all disappeared that afternoon despite Tom's and Ernest's best efforts.
"How long has this been going on?" Brennan asked, sipping at his hot chocolate.
"Not long," Lady Esther replied. "A week, maybe ten days. At first I thought it was merely an over-active imagination. With my eyesight, at my age, I should be forgiven a little mistake or two. And there's always the possibility that my own mild psionic powers could be acting up just a trace, tuning in on one of the children's dreams. The lizards are rainbow-colored, after all, and I've yet to see such appearances in nature. But things have gone a bit too far for that explanation."
"I know this sounds crazy, but what about an exorcist?" Jesse wanted to know. "We've seen some pretty strange things now and again."
"No luck. He pronounced the house clean of 'malevolent influences.' After charging me a disgracefully large sum of money, I might add."
"A fraud?"
Lady Esther sighed. "No, unfortunately. He was the real thing. I may not have the power of some of your friends, Mr. Mulray, but I have enough to recognize talent when I see it."
Brennan flexed his arm. The muscles twinged, but that was all. He looked over at Jesse. "Sounds like you and I know what we'll be doing for the rest of the night. Hunting down rainbow-colored lizards and figuring out who's sending them."
"But quietly," Lady Esther warned. "The children need their sleep. They have school in the morning."
* * *
"I don't understand it!" Shalimar fumed. "How did that cobra get into Sanctuary?"
"Good question," Lexa responded grimly, fighting with the computer, trying to get it to tell her something that she could accept. 'No logical explanation' wasn't cutting it for her. "If Brennan's cloud thing was anything more than a hallucination, I could see it slipping in through the ventilator shafts. But the shafts are screened over. The cobra couldn't have gotten in that way. Or any other way, from what I can tell."
Shalimar leaned over the console. "Maybe the cobra was a hallucination, too."
"Don't start, Shalimar. You brought me the carcass."
"Maybe it was a mass hallucination. We all saw it. It's been done before."
"Nope. Thought of that. The computer 'saw' it, too. It wouldn't have acknowledged the snake's presence if it hadn't really been here."
Shalimar sighed, and changed the subject. "Had any luck tracking down the escapees from Brennan's little escapade?"
"Amazingly enough, yes. All but one are now behind bars, courtesy of our men in blue."
Shalimar nodded, pleased. "And not likely to leave any time soon. Levitating key rings doesn't help when the locks are electronic and controlled from several rooms away. They're stuck."
"Exactly. And it happened yesterday, before the cobra incident, which means they weren't involved. So we're left with just this one." Lexa switched the computer screen to show a lean and lanky redhead caught in a frozen-in-time picture looking over her shoulder. The woman could have been pretty had she taken the trouble, but just as obviously the woman didn't care. The coat was too big for her and the torn jeans managed to be anything but artful. She simply looked as though she didn't care about her appearance. Greasy hair was just fine by her. "Karen Allbright, feral."
"Mine," Shalimar hissed.
Lexa switched the screen to show the woman's stats. "Power down, Shal. This one's on the run. Last known position was some three hundred miles from here. Care to tell me how she could get a cobra and a smoke cloud inside Sanctuary, a place, I might add, that she has no idea where it is?"
"Someone could have told her." Shalimar wasn't ready to give up so easily. "Then she ran."
"Which would explain why there have been no other incidents since last night," Lexa allowed. "All right. Let's go chase."
* * *
"Vanished," Brennan grumbled. "Where could they have all gotten to?"
"Maybe the lizards have a nest in the woods somewhere," Jesse suggested, covering a yawn. He toed over a stone to look underneath. Nothing. Brushing aside a leafy bush proved equally as unrewarding, but he had to keep going—it was his idea that the rainbow-colored lizards were hiding here in the shrubbery surrounding the house. "Gets cold outside, they come inside to get warm. Sun comes up, the lizards go out hunting for food."
"Why do I not buy that?"
"You're the suspicious type?"
"Couldn't possibly be that lizards don't come in Rainbow-Brite colors."
Tess skipped out to join them. She slipped a gloved hand into Jesse's, tugging him away from the forsythia bush that was dropping yellow blossoms in favor of green leaves. "C'mon. Granny says that breakfast is ready."
Brennan brightened. "Sounds good to me. I could use a break. And I'm hungry," he added pointedly.
"You're always hungry," Jesse told him.
"So I'm a growing boy," Brennan grinned. "Right, Tess?"
"Sure." She tugged on Jesse's hand, sliding her arm around his waist. Brennan shot Jesse a meaningful look over her head. The molecular got the hint right away, and disengaged himself before they re-entered the house.
It didn't help. Tom still looked sullen as the trio came in and shook off the cool morning air, digging into his bowl of cereal with a ferocity that Brennan really wished wasn't aimed at Jesse. Good thing Tess had already done her psychic vampire drain on Tom, Brennan reflected. With the power that the teen-age psionic possessed, Jesse would've been jellied brain cells with one look. Ernest was the most cheerful of the household, clattering the dishes as he carried the remains of breakfast to the sink.
"Got a math test today," he informed Jesse. "It's a piece of cake. It's on quadratic equations. I've been doing those all year; they're easy. You need four variables before they really get hard."
"Right," Jesse said. "I use the computer to solve those."
"Can't. Not in school. All they let us use is those dinky little calculators. Can't wait to get to high school. Maybe they'll have some decent stuff there. Seventh grade is boring."
"Enough," Lady Esther said, checking the clock on the wall over the stove. "Time to go. Children, get your schoolbooks. And your jackets." She glanced outside automatically, and did a double take. "What's that?"
The note of dread stiffened Brennan; he darted to the window. "Everyone, down!" he ordered just short of a yell. "Jesse, take the right!" The elemental bolted for the door, the molecular right behind him.
"Cool!" chirped Ernest, staring out through the window before Granny Esther pulled him to the floor and the safety of strong walls. Tess and Tom were more circumspect. They dove to the ceramic tile kitchen floor.
The lone figure stood at the end of the driveway, slowly advancing toward the house. It was tall and thin, and its head shrouded in a black hood that billowed into a long dark robe, obscuring all identification. It moved laboriously, pausing to survey the surroundings, not entirely comfortable in the morning sun.
Brennan strode forward. "Who are you?"
The figure in black noticed the approaching pair for the first time. Almost lazily it waved an arm at them. Flame shot out.
Jesse barely had time to get in front of Brennan and mass solid, deflecting the beam. He staggered back at the force of it, barely managing to keep his footing. Brennan whirled back out from behind his protection and loosed a bolt of his own at the figure. The black specter shattered into little rivulets of whatever that drained away into the dirt of the driveway.
Brennan and Jesse dashed forward, looking around furiously for any sign of the thing that had menaced the house.
"Gone," Brennan exclaimed. "What the hell was that?"
"And where did it go?" Jesse added. "More to the point, is it coming back?"
Brennan scuffed at the dirt. There was no sign that anything malevolent had ever been there. But with hearts pounding and chests heaving, neither one would doubt the visitation. "I guess this can be considered a step up from a flock of lizards in the bedroom, Jess. Somebody's getting more serious."
Jesse nodded slowly. "But who?"
* * *
Shalimar positioned herself to one side of the doorway and gave the high sign to Lexa. The chromatic elemental silently counted down on elegantly long fingers: three, two, one—and let loose with a blast of light that knocked the door in.
Shalimar shoulder-rolled in and came up to a crouched position. She ducked, just in time to avoid a long and lanky foot that would have connected with her head, had her head been in the expected place. She retaliated, sweeping her foot around to knock her opponent off of her feet.
But ferals were made of sterner stuff. Karen Allbright twirled in the air to land in her own crouched position. Then she leaped, and bounced off the wall to fly at Shalimar again.
Who wasn't there. Shalimar cartwheeled away, only to return and lash out with her own foot. It connected with the redhead's chest, sending her flying. She crashed into the wall. But even that didn't stop the feral—either one of them.
"This is ridiculous," Lexa muttered to herself. She aimed a jolt of light—and missed. Another missed as well; the two ferals were moving too quickly for a casually aimed bolt. Lexa gritted her teeth. "Speed of light, girl," she snarled under her breath at herself. "Use it!"
Her chance came. Shalimar launched herself into the air, meeting halfway across the room in mid-air with her opponent. She swung Allbright head over heads, but the redhead hung on, taking Shalimar with her. Allbright slammed Shalimar into the far wall hard enough to rattle the blonde's teeth. Allbright spun into a back roundhouse kick, clearly intending to detach Shalimar's head from her neck.
Shalimar ducked—down, but not out! Lexa saw her chance, and shot a bolt of light at the briefly stationary target. Allbright went flying back.
But instead of crashing into the wall as Lexa had hoped, Allbright crashed into a window. A more accurate description would have included the word 'through'.
Both women dashed over to look. Down below horrified onlookers gathered to gawk at the twisted body lying on the concrete, and to call for help. Allbright didn't move. Shalimar glared at Lexa.
"Look at the bright side," Lexa offered sheepishly. "At least now she can't attack Brennan."
* * *
Jesse glumly surveyed the sample of driveway dirt that he'd gathered into a test tube that he'd scrounged from Ernest's things. "I could really use the laboratory at Sanctuary right about now," he said pointedly. "Ernest's a bright kid, but there's a limit as to how much technology an eleven year old is able to acquire."
Brennan ignored the plaint. "So what do you think? Anything in there?"
"You really want my considered opinion?"
"Give, Jesse."
"It's dirt."
"Dirt?"
"Dirt." Jesse flicked the test tube, holding it up to the light. "Half a dozen compounds that even the Sanctuary lab would have trouble identifying but are entirely consistent with the geology of this area. No obviously unusual elements, no black pieces of whatever that thing was. If it weren't for the fact that we both saw it, I'd say that there had been nothing there."
"That's not helpful," Brennan observed.
"Ah, but it is." Jesse set the test tube down in the rack. "Whatever it was, it is capable of disappearing without leaving traces of itself behind. It shattered when you zapped it, so those pieces must have left in some other fashion. Either they exited, stage left, or they were reduced to their constituent molecules so that they are indistinguishable from the surrounding environment."
"Speak English."
"It vanished," Jesse said.
"Thanks."
"So what do we do about it? More important, what do we do with the kids? And Lady Esther?"
"I am not going anywhere." Lady Esther walked into Ernest's room, carefully stepping over the pile of dirty clothes lying on the floor and wrinkling up her nose. More piles of carelessly strewn clothing and toys also dotted the floor. "And I can tell you what young Master Maguire will be accomplishing this afternoon besides his homework."
"May not be very safe," Jesse pointed out. "The week-end's coming up. How about spending a couple of days at Sanctuary?"
"Ah, Jess? Remember a certain large snake?"
Jesse dismissed Brennan's concern. "Shalimar and Lexa would have called if there were any more problems on that end. How about it, Lady Esther?"
"Certainly not," Lady Esther declared, blue eyes glinting behind steel blue spectacles. "This is my home. You may take the children for a trip, but I will stay here." She considered. "It might even be good for them, to see the better side of their heritage. Then they wouldn't have to grow up thinking that their mutant abilities are bad, something to be hidden instead of cherished. Excellent idea. Take them to Sanctuary." Then Lady Esther wagged her finger warningly at them. "But not until Friday afternoon. I will not have them missing school for this. Ernest could manage it, but Tess has a test on Friday and Tom needs tutoring in math, Mr. Kilmartin! There was a reason that I asked you down here, after all. All this haunting nonsense is all very well, but young Thomas is in danger of failing his math class. You will see that he does not!"
"Yes, ma'am," Jesse replied hastily.
* * *
Brennan took the call when it came in from the distaff half of Mutant X. Jesse was working at the kitchen table with Tom, trying patiently to review the basics of algebra and single variable equations, and Brennan could see the wheels turning in Tess's head: how do I get closer to Jesse? If I start flunking math, will he pay that kind of attention to me? Tom, on the other hand, now had two reasons to despise Jesse: Tess, and basic algebra which Jesse understood and Tom didn't. Ernest retreated to his room where his computer lived. He'd already completed his homework and two extra credit projects and was now working on eliminating all of his opponents on Havoc OnLine! The whole inter-personal relationship thing between Jesse, Tom, and Tess looked like a melt-down waiting to happen, and Ernest had no intention of being in the fall-out zone. He'd invited Brennan to escape as well, but Brennan, a glutton for punishment, stuck it out in hopes that he could prevent the inevitable disaster from occurring.
"Hey, Brennan," Shalimar greeted him over the comm. link. "You two enjoying yourselves out there in the quiet countryside? Getting some rest? Your arm better?"
"Sure thing." Brennan kept the sarcasm to a minimum. Shalimar didn't deserve it. "I hope you guys have cleared up Sanctuary, 'cause I'd sure appreciate a little back-up out here."
"What's the matter, can't handle a couple of kids and an old lady?" Lexa put in.
"You've met these kids, and you can ask that?" Brennan shot back, sarcastic restraint forgotten. "Get real, Lex." He swiftly changed the subject. "You figured out what's been going on back there?"
Shalimar looked at Lexa. Lexa looked at Shalimar, and shrugged.
"We think so," Lexa temporized. "At least, we think we've stopped it. We identified who we think is the responsible party, and removed her from the equation."
Brennan winced. "Please don't use the word 'equation' around here. Tom's not doing so hot with algebra, and I'm worried that Jesse's going to actually lose his cool with the kid. And that's before we deal with Tess. So who was it, and how did she get a smoke cloud into Sanctuary that shot lightening bolts?"
Another exchange of sheepish looks. "It's going to be a little difficult to ask her," Shalimar said. "She's in ICU, unconscious."
"Great," Brennan grumbled, and there no mistaking the sarcasm this go-around. "Then asking about the snake will be equally impossible. Too bad, because she's been doing the same thing with lizards over here."
There was a sudden quiet over the comm. link. Then—"What did you say, Brennan?"
Brennan repeated his statement, filling them in on the morning's happenings. "But at least you guys put a stop to it."
Dead silence.
"Uh—you guys did put a stop to it. Didn't you?"
It was Shalimar's unhappy voice that he heard next. "Brennan, Karen Allbright was three hundred miles away when you fried your black specter."
More silence. Once again it was Brennan who broke it.
"Uh—you guys are coming out here real soon. Right?"