So here's the new chapter. Thank you so much for the responses to the last one. I was proud of that one so it was nice for people to tell me that I should be. This chapter was initially going to be 4000 plus words but I did a Quentin Tarantino and managed to break them up into two separate chapters. The other half of this needs to be proof read so it won't be up for a couple of days depending on how much homework I get. Please review this chapter and let me know what you think of the twist(you don't know what I'm talking about at the moment but you will).
Love Conquers: I just read the chapters and I'm gonna write you another nice long e-mail about them. And thanks for the quick summary of The Assault...oh my God! They finally kissed! I'll email you properly once I stop bouncing off the walls...which might be a while!
She felt a large shard of rock digging into the back of her head and instantly raised her hand to feel through the mass of blonde curls. She pulled it away again and looked at the faint spots of blood which covered her skin. She rubbed it off on her trousers, the tangy smell filling her nostrils. She loved being feral but it had its downside. She sat up and looked around her, rolling her shoulders back as she did so, hearing the clicks as bones popped inside their sockets, bringing relief to her joints.
Everyone else was lying on the floor. Halle had landed on her front and was rolling over slowly so she could look around her; Jesse had half landed on top of Lexa and was currently making sure she was okay. Shalimar smiled at his complete disregard for his own welfare in the face of her pain; and Brennan was currently pushing himself off of the ground, making sure that all the bones in his body were intact and looking ever so slightly pissed off at the fact that he had ended up on the floor in the first place.
Shalimar looked into the distance and saw a small cloud of dust accompanying the retreating figure of Charles Handon. He had clearly blown some kind of light charge and had made off with a pretty good head start. Shalimar rolled onto her back, raising her legs into the air as she did so and pushed with her arms. She took off of the ground and landed steadily on her feet, the cut on the back of her head forgotten within a moment. Seeing she was okay Brennan jogged over to Halle and helped her up. No one else was looking, nobody else had seen the direction in which Charles had run. Shalimar's eyes glowed golden and she felt the adrenaline begin to pump as she took off.
Her feet pounded against the ground and she felt her blood begin to pump through her veins. Air rushed from her lungs in short gasps as she tried to regulate her body to its current circumstances. She couldn't afford to lose Handon. It was more than just letting the bad guy get away which would have made her angry anyway. It was the fact that he was so dangerous. Not only did he have some extremely nasty connections but he also had the ability to find Halle again. After all the pain Shalimar had been put through at the hands of her father she couldn't watch as it happened to someone else. She had to stop him so that Halle could finish it. Shalimar had been given the chance to gain closure and God only knew what state she would be in if she hadn't. She remembered the moment when they turned off the life support machine. The steady beeping which had given her hope for so long; the lights from the heart monitor reassuring her that there was still some life worth fighting for. It had felt almost like murder at the time but Shalimar had gained a little perspective since then. Her father wouldn't have thanked her for keeping him alive in such a situation. And it had given her a chance to say goodbye to him, to let him go knowing that she didn't resent him. Shalimar was determined to give Halle the same right. Even if the illusionist decided to kill Handon, and Shalimar wouldn't have blamed her she deserved the opportunity to say goodbye to him properly, to close that chapter of her life.
Jesse heard the footsteps as Shalimar began to run. He turned his head quickly and stood up, taking Lexa with him. He rolled his eyes as he watched Shalimar tearing away from the group. He knew she was too fast for him to be able to follow her let alone catch up. There was no point in even trying. He knew her reasons for chasing Handon were good but he wished that just for once Mutant X could be a little more democratic about how it dealt with bad guys.
'Brennan,' Jesse called across to the brunette male. He looked across at him and saw that Brennan and Halle had already figured it out. They were making their way, as fast as possible across the ground towards the Helix. Jesse put his arm around Lexa's waist and helped her along but it looked like the day had eventually become too much for her and she was slowly slipping from his grasp as she glided into unconsciousness. Jesse swung his arm smoothly under her legs and picked her up from the ground. He ran with her, trying not to jolt her too much and made it to the Helix. He ran up the ramp and felt the door slide closed behind him. He placed Lexa in a seat next to Halle and felt the plane take off as he sat down in the pilot seat next to Brennan.
Ahead of him he could see the small figures of Charles and Shalimar, both of them running as fast as they could. Shalimar had predictably gained some ground on Handon and she didn't seem to be flagging at all. Jesse smiled. She never did get too tired and it used to infuriate him. She could fight for hours, she could hold her own against anyone she went up against and she could win. She could then run for a couple of miles and still not feel the strain on her muscles and the exhaustion that usually hit him after a pretty heavy workout.
The plane gradually moved overhead and Jesse lost sight of Shalimar as the dashboard blocked her from view. Handon was definitely tiring out and he knew that people were gaining on him. Jesse could almost sense the fear that Charles must have been feeling. But he figured that Handon had to have known that it was inevitable. He had worked against Mutant X for long enough to know that they didn't crawl up and die when the going got a little tougher than usual.
Brennan brought the plane down to land on the dusty floor. The landscape through the windscreen was temporarily blocked as dust was blown up around the ship but Brennan didn't notice as the he slammed his hand into the button which operated the door, stood and practically jumped over his chair to reach the opening. He saw Handon running in the direction of the Helix. He was looking away from Brennan, back towards the oncoming force of Shalimar and Brennan stepped from the plane. He watched the expression on Handon's face change from potential fear to the actual kind as he saw Brennan. He stopped in his tracks and Brennan took the opportunity to light up a couple of sparks of electricity. Blue flashed in the corner of his eye but he kept his gaze on Charles.
He heard Shalimar appear behind Handon but didn't dare take his eyes off the man in front of him. He had shocked them all before but Brennan assumed that he wasn't going to try the same trick twice in one day. He wanted to hurt him. It wasn't necessarily all the bad things that he had done to Mutant X, though obviously they played a huge part. The fact that Handon had managed to keep Brennan away from Shalimar, Lexa away from Jesse, Halle away from everyone was a contributing factor to the whole rage thing, but the fact that he had then chosen to run away from it all, to run away from the problems he had created, to hide from the consequences of his own actions was something Brennan couldn't stand. It was the kind of thing which ran true for so many new mutants. Jesse's father had stayed away from home as much as possible, allowing himself to become lost in the job; Lexa, from what Brennan knew, which wasn't a lot hadn't ever really known either of her parents; Shalimar's dad...he had been there and he had cared but in all the wrong ways; and Brennan's mother had managed to submerge herself in a series of abusive relationships before finding a man she could forget about her son for. Brennan occasionally found himself becoming furious when he thought about what his parents had done to him. They were the ones who had made the decision to take him to Genomex, and then his mother had denied that anything had happened at all, to the point where she didn't even acknowledge Brennan's presence. His father might have done the same but Brennan tried to convince himself that he had been a good man, one who would have cared. People like Handon reinforced the opposite view and it brought back memories and emotions that Brennan preferred to keep hidden.
She heard the shot before she saw the results of it. It rang out across the dry flat land, echoing when it reached buildings. The noise served to wake her up a little bit. She stared at Jesse, wide eyed, her thoughts reeling from the sound. They both stood up quickly from their seats and raced towards the door of the Helix. They both took in the scene laid out before them. Shalimar was standing, her head moving from side to side as she tried to find the owner of the gun; Handon was lying on the floor, a pool of dark red liquid gradually spreading out from beneath his head, trailing its way through his hair and across the dry ground taking in stones and dirt as it went; they watched as Brennan moved forward towards Handon but they were too late to stop him as a second shot sounded. Lexa watched as he stopped moving, just stood there and time seemed to slow. His movements were laboured as he raised one of his hands to his chest. It touched the fabric of his top and as he pulled it away the bright red blood stood out against the dull background. Lexa felt Jesse brush past her and he caught Brennan before he hit the ground. She heard her name called out but she couldn't seem to force any of her muscles to move. They wouldn't cooperate with her brain.
'Lexa!'
At the second cry everything became more real. Time sped up to its normal pace and she found that she could suddenly hear everything better. She rushed forward and grabbed Brennan's legs as she helped Jesse carry him towards the Helix. She couldn't take her eyes off of his face. It was pale under his warm tan and his lips were gradually taking on a vaguely purple hue. His eyes were squeezed shut as he tried to deal with the pain of the bullet wound and from her view she could see the scarlet spreading across his top. It engulfed his chest and Lexa looked away, unable to keep her eyes on it without throwing up.
As they placed Brennan in one of the chairs in the Helix Jesse turned back around and jogged towards the door. He hadn't even considered Shalimar in everything that had happened. As she came into view he saw that she hadn't yet moved. She was standing where she had before, but this time she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the splashes of blood which adorned the ground where Brennan had stood moments earlier. She was completely motionless and he found himself wondering whether or not she was breathing at all. He rushed forward, hoping that there were no more gunmen watching the team and grabbed Shalimar's hand in his own. Her head shot up as her eyes took in his face. She hadn't even realised that he was there, caught in her own thoughts and emotions but she didn't resist his urgency. She allowed herself to be pulled into the Helix and as soon as the door was closed the plane rose in the air, dust moving with it and it sped off into the gradually darkening sky.
Love Conquers: I just read the chapters and I'm gonna write you another nice long e-mail about them. And thanks for the quick summary of The Assault...oh my God! They finally kissed! I'll email you properly once I stop bouncing off the walls...which might be a while!
She felt a large shard of rock digging into the back of her head and instantly raised her hand to feel through the mass of blonde curls. She pulled it away again and looked at the faint spots of blood which covered her skin. She rubbed it off on her trousers, the tangy smell filling her nostrils. She loved being feral but it had its downside. She sat up and looked around her, rolling her shoulders back as she did so, hearing the clicks as bones popped inside their sockets, bringing relief to her joints.
Everyone else was lying on the floor. Halle had landed on her front and was rolling over slowly so she could look around her; Jesse had half landed on top of Lexa and was currently making sure she was okay. Shalimar smiled at his complete disregard for his own welfare in the face of her pain; and Brennan was currently pushing himself off of the ground, making sure that all the bones in his body were intact and looking ever so slightly pissed off at the fact that he had ended up on the floor in the first place.
Shalimar looked into the distance and saw a small cloud of dust accompanying the retreating figure of Charles Handon. He had clearly blown some kind of light charge and had made off with a pretty good head start. Shalimar rolled onto her back, raising her legs into the air as she did so and pushed with her arms. She took off of the ground and landed steadily on her feet, the cut on the back of her head forgotten within a moment. Seeing she was okay Brennan jogged over to Halle and helped her up. No one else was looking, nobody else had seen the direction in which Charles had run. Shalimar's eyes glowed golden and she felt the adrenaline begin to pump as she took off.
Her feet pounded against the ground and she felt her blood begin to pump through her veins. Air rushed from her lungs in short gasps as she tried to regulate her body to its current circumstances. She couldn't afford to lose Handon. It was more than just letting the bad guy get away which would have made her angry anyway. It was the fact that he was so dangerous. Not only did he have some extremely nasty connections but he also had the ability to find Halle again. After all the pain Shalimar had been put through at the hands of her father she couldn't watch as it happened to someone else. She had to stop him so that Halle could finish it. Shalimar had been given the chance to gain closure and God only knew what state she would be in if she hadn't. She remembered the moment when they turned off the life support machine. The steady beeping which had given her hope for so long; the lights from the heart monitor reassuring her that there was still some life worth fighting for. It had felt almost like murder at the time but Shalimar had gained a little perspective since then. Her father wouldn't have thanked her for keeping him alive in such a situation. And it had given her a chance to say goodbye to him, to let him go knowing that she didn't resent him. Shalimar was determined to give Halle the same right. Even if the illusionist decided to kill Handon, and Shalimar wouldn't have blamed her she deserved the opportunity to say goodbye to him properly, to close that chapter of her life.
Jesse heard the footsteps as Shalimar began to run. He turned his head quickly and stood up, taking Lexa with him. He rolled his eyes as he watched Shalimar tearing away from the group. He knew she was too fast for him to be able to follow her let alone catch up. There was no point in even trying. He knew her reasons for chasing Handon were good but he wished that just for once Mutant X could be a little more democratic about how it dealt with bad guys.
'Brennan,' Jesse called across to the brunette male. He looked across at him and saw that Brennan and Halle had already figured it out. They were making their way, as fast as possible across the ground towards the Helix. Jesse put his arm around Lexa's waist and helped her along but it looked like the day had eventually become too much for her and she was slowly slipping from his grasp as she glided into unconsciousness. Jesse swung his arm smoothly under her legs and picked her up from the ground. He ran with her, trying not to jolt her too much and made it to the Helix. He ran up the ramp and felt the door slide closed behind him. He placed Lexa in a seat next to Halle and felt the plane take off as he sat down in the pilot seat next to Brennan.
Ahead of him he could see the small figures of Charles and Shalimar, both of them running as fast as they could. Shalimar had predictably gained some ground on Handon and she didn't seem to be flagging at all. Jesse smiled. She never did get too tired and it used to infuriate him. She could fight for hours, she could hold her own against anyone she went up against and she could win. She could then run for a couple of miles and still not feel the strain on her muscles and the exhaustion that usually hit him after a pretty heavy workout.
The plane gradually moved overhead and Jesse lost sight of Shalimar as the dashboard blocked her from view. Handon was definitely tiring out and he knew that people were gaining on him. Jesse could almost sense the fear that Charles must have been feeling. But he figured that Handon had to have known that it was inevitable. He had worked against Mutant X for long enough to know that they didn't crawl up and die when the going got a little tougher than usual.
Brennan brought the plane down to land on the dusty floor. The landscape through the windscreen was temporarily blocked as dust was blown up around the ship but Brennan didn't notice as the he slammed his hand into the button which operated the door, stood and practically jumped over his chair to reach the opening. He saw Handon running in the direction of the Helix. He was looking away from Brennan, back towards the oncoming force of Shalimar and Brennan stepped from the plane. He watched the expression on Handon's face change from potential fear to the actual kind as he saw Brennan. He stopped in his tracks and Brennan took the opportunity to light up a couple of sparks of electricity. Blue flashed in the corner of his eye but he kept his gaze on Charles.
He heard Shalimar appear behind Handon but didn't dare take his eyes off the man in front of him. He had shocked them all before but Brennan assumed that he wasn't going to try the same trick twice in one day. He wanted to hurt him. It wasn't necessarily all the bad things that he had done to Mutant X, though obviously they played a huge part. The fact that Handon had managed to keep Brennan away from Shalimar, Lexa away from Jesse, Halle away from everyone was a contributing factor to the whole rage thing, but the fact that he had then chosen to run away from it all, to run away from the problems he had created, to hide from the consequences of his own actions was something Brennan couldn't stand. It was the kind of thing which ran true for so many new mutants. Jesse's father had stayed away from home as much as possible, allowing himself to become lost in the job; Lexa, from what Brennan knew, which wasn't a lot hadn't ever really known either of her parents; Shalimar's dad...he had been there and he had cared but in all the wrong ways; and Brennan's mother had managed to submerge herself in a series of abusive relationships before finding a man she could forget about her son for. Brennan occasionally found himself becoming furious when he thought about what his parents had done to him. They were the ones who had made the decision to take him to Genomex, and then his mother had denied that anything had happened at all, to the point where she didn't even acknowledge Brennan's presence. His father might have done the same but Brennan tried to convince himself that he had been a good man, one who would have cared. People like Handon reinforced the opposite view and it brought back memories and emotions that Brennan preferred to keep hidden.
She heard the shot before she saw the results of it. It rang out across the dry flat land, echoing when it reached buildings. The noise served to wake her up a little bit. She stared at Jesse, wide eyed, her thoughts reeling from the sound. They both stood up quickly from their seats and raced towards the door of the Helix. They both took in the scene laid out before them. Shalimar was standing, her head moving from side to side as she tried to find the owner of the gun; Handon was lying on the floor, a pool of dark red liquid gradually spreading out from beneath his head, trailing its way through his hair and across the dry ground taking in stones and dirt as it went; they watched as Brennan moved forward towards Handon but they were too late to stop him as a second shot sounded. Lexa watched as he stopped moving, just stood there and time seemed to slow. His movements were laboured as he raised one of his hands to his chest. It touched the fabric of his top and as he pulled it away the bright red blood stood out against the dull background. Lexa felt Jesse brush past her and he caught Brennan before he hit the ground. She heard her name called out but she couldn't seem to force any of her muscles to move. They wouldn't cooperate with her brain.
'Lexa!'
At the second cry everything became more real. Time sped up to its normal pace and she found that she could suddenly hear everything better. She rushed forward and grabbed Brennan's legs as she helped Jesse carry him towards the Helix. She couldn't take her eyes off of his face. It was pale under his warm tan and his lips were gradually taking on a vaguely purple hue. His eyes were squeezed shut as he tried to deal with the pain of the bullet wound and from her view she could see the scarlet spreading across his top. It engulfed his chest and Lexa looked away, unable to keep her eyes on it without throwing up.
As they placed Brennan in one of the chairs in the Helix Jesse turned back around and jogged towards the door. He hadn't even considered Shalimar in everything that had happened. As she came into view he saw that she hadn't yet moved. She was standing where she had before, but this time she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from the splashes of blood which adorned the ground where Brennan had stood moments earlier. She was completely motionless and he found himself wondering whether or not she was breathing at all. He rushed forward, hoping that there were no more gunmen watching the team and grabbed Shalimar's hand in his own. Her head shot up as her eyes took in his face. She hadn't even realised that he was there, caught in her own thoughts and emotions but she didn't resist his urgency. She allowed herself to be pulled into the Helix and as soon as the door was closed the plane rose in the air, dust moving with it and it sped off into the gradually darkening sky.